With this being tourist season across the country; zoos need to have consultants on their payroll for this type of emergency. An injured animal is an emergency. The only people licensed to treat animals are veterinarians.
Megan Mogensen should have quickly called the veterinarian on consult to the zoo to receive information as to the best way to euthanize the animal in question. Quite frankly, when an animal is euthanized, a record to it's treatment and death should be on hand for inspectors to read.
July 8, 2015
By Will Isern
...Mogensen (click here) led a reporter on a tour of the Gulf Breeze Zoo Wednesday morning. To be sure, the zoo facilities today are impressive and don't show any obvious signs of the kind of abuses alleged in the federal complaint. Still, the complaint stands and Mogensen will be made to appear before an administrative law judge. He says he has refuted each of the government's accusations in writing and intends to fight the complaint in court....
...If found guilty of any or all of the charges, Mogensen and his daughter, Meghan, who also is named in the complaint, could face a variety of outcomes, including having their zoo operation license suspended or revoked.
The most egregious violation included in the complaint is one that Meghan Mogensen did, in 2012 as director of the Reston Zoo in Reston, Va., drown an injured parma wallaby as a means of euthanasia and fabricated a euthanasia report. Mogensen was found guilty of those charges in a Fairfax County, Va., courthouse in 2012 and spent a month in jail.
"The poor girl made a mistake," Mogensen said. "It'll come out that there was a curator up there that was doing a lot of (the violations at the Reston Zoo), and it wasn't Meghan. She had one instance, everything else they mention wasn't her."..."
The certification for zoos applies to all zoos, not just the larger zoos. Many zoos invest a great deal of time and resources to provide a safe and quality experience for the public. There are some real tragedies that occur at zoos. It is the responsibility of the government to insure the public is safe.
July 9, 2015
L.A. Zoo seeks docents (volunteers without pay) (click here)
People who love animals and working with children can serve as a volunteer at the Los Angeles Zoo....
...The docent program, open to ages 18 and up, provides comprehensive training, with no experience necessary.
GLAZA’s 600 volunteers have contributed more than 76,000 hours last year to the zoo. Many volunteers have provided over 46 years of service.
Docents complete a 23-week training program offered at the zoo each fall in conjunction with UCLA Extension. Classes, which begin in October, meet from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. once a week on Mondays or Saturdays....
Zoos can receive attention in the age of iPhones and Facebook by having a prize daily or at the end of the season for the best animal picture of the day or of the season.
"PHOTOS: Baby animals draws crowds as zoos and wildlife parks." (click here)Rules regarding the contest can be posted around the zoo and on the e-page of the zoo. Those rules must include lawful space between the photographer and the animals, including others in the SELFIE.
I'll be darn. The zoos still have baby giraffes. I thought they were going extinct. I thought the lions that ate them were in trouble, too.
This giraffe was born last November Tanganyika Wildlife Park. (july 8, 2015)
This entry made in memory of "Marius" and his subsequent friends now in the spirit world. (click here)
Don't even think about it, including drowning. People are watching.
