http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4949-2004Feb25.html Lucy Spelman is going to leave her job as head of the National Zoo at the end of this year despite presiding over countless needless animal deaths and the overall disintegration of what should be the nicest zoo in the country. The Post has links to more articles on the subject of the problems at the zoo. One of the articles talks about some zebras that were kept at the zoo's Front Royal location who died of starvation and hypothermia. Apparently Spelman kept telling the zookeepers that the zebras were too fat and to feed them less. So they died of starvation. I'm sorry - if I ever see this bitch on the street I will slap her into next week.
I don't know how she gets to keep her job. Incredible. I'll never contribute money to the Smithsonian Institution again.
Every few months we get another story about the incompetence of the DC government. The National zoo story is amazing because even after what was happening was uncovered, it continued. They didn't fix things right away rather they promised incremental improvements, budget increases, etc. They failed to immediately get rid of the incompetence. Political patronage means more to these people than dying animals.
Upon visiting the National Zoo after moving here, I was disappointed to discover that it lagged far behind the Fort Worth Zoo back in Texas.
In fairness, the National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian, not the DC government. For an example of DC government problems, we have the lead in the drinking water issue.
Thanks footer. After I wrote that I was wondering who would picked up on that mistake. Thanks for being nice about it.
I've wondered if the evil bitch has pictures of the head of the smithsonian naked with a girl scout troop because it's the only reason I see for her not being fired on the spot. I won't go that far because the Smithsonian does good stuff and I hope that they fix the zoo. But when they called me this year inquiring about why I didn't renew my membership I told them that as long as Spelman was running the Zoo, the Smithsonian wasn't getting a dime from me.
Re: Re: She let zebras starve to death but she gets to keep her job for 10 more months I haven't been to the National Zoo, but I couldn't imagine it could be much better than the FTW zoo. I used to live right by there and would visit all the time.
Un-freakin'-believable The lunatic is indeed in charge of the asylum... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10497-2004Feb26.html Even though the reforms she has made to date are inadequate, the morons who run the Smithsonian are going to keep her on and let her preside over the next batch of reforms. She CLEARLY doesn't know what she's doing. Why is she staying? I just don't understand.
Re: Un-freakin'-believable That's why I'm not giving them any more money. I think I'll write them a letter and let them know.
Re: Un-freakin'-believable As I remember, she blamed the deaths on inadequate funding. It is the same BS told by just about every government manager I have ever met. That is, that all the problems can be blamed on insufficient funding and adequate funding would solve all the problems. So the argument goes: The worse thing get then the more money we should spend.
Inadequate funding? Well, when my wife and I heard about animals starving to death, we thought of the prairie dogs we saw at the National Zoo. They were immensely fat. Was that because of a lack of funding that wouldn't permit them to buy prairie dog nautilus machines and treadmills? Or were they not paying attention to the details of the day to day care of their animals? Sorry. Sometimes inadequate funding is a serious problem. But by invoking it here, you're crying wolf and making it tougher the next time another zoo director with real funding problems has to approach her or his board of directors.
I renewed our membership at the Friends of the National Zoo late last year after a great deal of debate. I included a note that Spelman resign. (Obviousy, that's why she did.) My 4 year old son, not surprisingly, loves the zoo so much, I simply hoped Spelman would go and the zoo would use the funds to improve things. One problem I see, besides incompetence, is poor use of space and too many exhibits. (Not unusual for an urban zoo.) And now they're going to have a petting zoo? The current animal residents need more space as it is. What a mess.