With a recent history of bookkeeping and management problems and a spate of 10 animal deaths – some in situations that suggest negligence and poor oversight – the Chattanooga Zoo is rightly under scrutiny. So it’s good to learn that the Friends of the Zoo, the entity that assumed operational control of the zoo in September under a contract with the city, has hired a consulting firm to pinpoint what’s wrong with the zoo’s operations and how its management should be changed.
The consulting firm, Schultz & Williams, won’t be alone in its mission. The board of the Friends of the Zoo, which was formed in 1985 to help improve and support the zoo, has also asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to investigate and report on conditions at the zoo. In addition, the board is awaiting reports on necropsies of the seven animals that died in the span of a month over December and January.
There is ample ground to plow. The zoo has lost its most notable and long-lived star, Hank, a 42-year-old chimpanzee under circumstances that raise questions about the chimpanzee’s care for diabetes from a new keeper. There are also questions to be answered about the deaths of two of a snow leopard’s three new cubs; they were found outside stillborn after the leopard reportedly was locked out of her den in inclement weather.
Two marmoset monkeys died after missing food and water between one and four-and-a-half days, depending who’s speaking. A Friends of the Zoo board member and veterinarian said preliminary reports indicated the marmosets had a type of hepatitis that is spread by mice.
A USDA inspection found mouse droppings in various places in the spider monkey’s indoor housing building, and too little hay for grazing animals one day. Zoo keeper John Urstadt told reporters for this newspaper that the zoo’s conspicuous mice and rat problem around the animal feed room is well known. The correlation between the vermin problem and the welfare of the zoo’s animals clearly needs to be determined, and the vermin problem eliminated.