The gate at the Chattanooga Zoo features zoo animals.McKamey Center officials fired a former zookeeper Wednesday for speaking to the media about conditions at the Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park, her former employer.
“I was told only Karen [Walsh] was allowed to talk to the media,” said Deborah Bond, who took a job with McKamey when her city job ended after Chattanooga officials transferred operation of the zoo to Friends of the Zoo.
McKamey Executive Director Karen Walsh confirmed that Bond was fired for talking to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, but said it was the second time Bond had broken the rule. Walsh said McKamey policy states employees, other than her, may not talk to the media.
“Our name is out there. It’s all over the Internet and all that stuff that we’re attacking the zoo because the fact that she worked here was linked with her complaint,” Walsh said. “I think because it was said that she was a McKamey employee that it seemed McKamey had some involvement in trying to do something to the zoo, and that’s not the case at all.”
McKamey is a nonprofit contracted by the city to run the animal shelter, just as Friends of the Zoo is contracted by the city to operate the zoo.