re: BOOM, BR zoo to lose accreditation

Interesting. Almost 38 million of that 58 million general fund balance is committed or assigned

Committed to:
Knock-Knock Children's Museum
Mineral Endowment 1,342,965

Assigned to:
Strategic Master Plan 10,871,897
Self-Insurance 3,500,000
Retirement Benefit 4,600,000
Self-Insurance (Health) 4,800,000
Working Capital 6,126,000
Emergency Funds and Other 6,126,000

I would think a healthy balance for uncommitted plus emergency would be around 17-18 million. They have 26 million. So defiantly high but nothing out of control high.

If I was a taxpayer in EBR I'd be asking a lot of questions about that almost 11 million for strategic plan.

How can they expect crowds to the zoo when they dont have the famous animals.

quote:

---

they need to get star animals. Elephants, lions, crocs, and some damn bears.

---

Did you not read what I wrote? They have bears

Hasnt Audubon been lion free for like 4 or 5 years?

The elephant situation will be addressed im assuming with the renovation

they have a wolf last time i went

They have a pair of Gibbons, which arent small primates

what about grizzly, polar, brown, kodiak???
saltwater or nile crocs!!


the georgie aquairum has belugas!
these animals will draw people, not some boring shite.
disney world has better zoos

quote:

---

this is what's gonna happen. I have sauces.

these inspections were done a while back but wasn't released.
now BREC is gonna throw out some obscene price that it's gonna cost to regain accreditation. this will not be passed by baton rouge residents and then BREC will be forced to consider closing.

this will put relocation back on the table without the opposition

---

Seems like they have been learning from the shitposter in chief. 4D chess...

And the Audubon Zoo is building a brand new Lion enclosure now. I think they'll have them back in 2019.

quote:

---

A good example is Bayou Wildlife Park, under Texas. I've brought my kids there several times. Very few animal enclosures. No miles of concrete walking paths. But tons of animals, tons of direct interaction with the animals, a safari type tram tours the park, exotics from 19 countries, you can feed many of the animals by hand. It's just as enjoyable an experience as what you consider to be a "zoo". But the AZA would never accredit it b/c it doesn't follow their zoo template.

---

There's one of those on the north shore called the Global Wildlife Center.

quote:

---

A good example is Bayou Wildlife Park, under Texas. I've brought my kids there several times. Very few animal enclosures. No miles of concrete walking paths. But tons of animals, tons of direct interaction with the animals, a safari type tram tours the park, exotics from 19 countries, you can feed many of the animals by hand. It's just as enjoyable an experience as what you consider to be a "zoo". But the AZA would never accredit it b/c it doesn't follow their zoo template.

---

There are a ton of ranches with lots of exotic animals in high fence enclosures.


The best part is if you pay enough, you can shoot whatever you want to.

quote:

---

The communities surrounding the zoo need to step up and fund whatever improvements need to happen.

---

I don't think contractors accept food stamps as payment.

quote:

---

The elephant situation will be addressed im assuming with the renovation

---

The elephant situation is what got the whole renovation debate started. Under Obama, the regulations for elephant habitats were changed to be so stringent that only a half dozen zoos nationwide were in compliance.

While the regulation grandfathered in existing elephant exhibits, it also contained a provisions stating that no zoo with elephants could have fewer than 2 elephants, and that zoos not meeting the standards could not get any more elephants. Basically, the BR Zoo got to keep the elephants they had until one died (one of the BR Zoo's elephants, Judy, died in 2013 at the ripe old age of 46), then the other one had to be sold to another zoo.

Friends of the Baton Rouge Zoo wanted to bring the elephants back, so BREC being BREC started adding onto the project thinking, "well, while we're redoing the elephant exhibit, we should add on _____" over and over again until the cost estimate somehow made it cheaper to just move the zoo.