Los Angeles considers privatizing its zoo

By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
July 28, 2011


Someone else may soon be tending to the misty artificial rain forest at the Los Angeles Zoo where Bruno, a 300-pound orangutan with a wispy orange beard and a hulking frame, makes his home.

The city opened the zoo and botanical gardens in 1966, but officials are now considering a proposal to turn over management to a private operator. That means the gardeners, plumbers and other city employees who help run the zoo could be transferred to other departments and replaced with private workers.

Like any issue involving labor — or animals — the fight over the fate of the zoo has caused a considerable stir.

City officials say the change would save nearly $20 million over the next five years and rescue the zoo from possible budget reductions or even closure. But opponents of the plan question the savings and warn that privatization could mean steeper ticket prices for the zoo's 1.5 million annual visitors and less transparency when it comes to animal welfare. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0728-zoo-private-20110728,0,446036.story

It was located in Thousands Oaks.

I visited there many times while growing up (1960s) but I remember it as not particularly clean with small facilities for the animals. I thought of it as a "Grade B" zoo.

It closed in 1969 due to the competition from other area amusement parks (Knott's, Disneyland, etc)

But it was privately owned.

How can anyone believe that the LA Zoo can be turned over to private ownership and survive?

The L.A. Zoo holds a place in my memories; growing up, my best friend's mom was a docent. We spent at least one day a week, all summer, every summer, wandering the zoo while she was working.

I took my kids back, and my grandson and I spent a lot of time there before we moved out of state.

I also did a few days of professional development and took most of my primary classes on field trips, with the packs of artifacts specially collected for those purposes. My students studied various species in class for a couple of weeks, and once we got to the zoo, tried to jump the length of a kangaroo stride, stuck out their tongue and compared it to the length of the giraffe's tongue, and generally had a blast.

Seriously, PHUCK THIS! Does anyone think these animals will NOT suffer when a for-profit management group comes in? PHUCK THIS!!!!