In the event of an emergency, the first animals Wellington Zoo will shoot are...

[D18]

@ducati

. . . when I carry a .45 to the zoo.

Do you really? When it comes to Americans and guns, anything’s possible, and I’m genuinely curious.

[Zsofia]

@Freudian_Slit

You volunteer at your local zoo?! Between that and the librarian thing, I really want your life. That sounds like so much fun. I’m a little worried about what “they don’t like you” means for the gorillas. Like…do they snub you when they don’t like you or gnaw your face off?

I haven’t started yet - I just had orientation and I have to produce a negative TB test first. (Well, if you flunk the TB test you can still work in the aquarium or customer service, but goddamn if I’m going to not get paid to do a job like the one that I get paid to have burn me out!) I got the TB shot thing today and I keep nervously looking at it to see if it does anything. They’ll read it Monday.

Evidently the gorillas are most likely to not like tall men, but sometimes they just have a thing against you and you can’t work with them.

[Girl_From_Mars]

@alice_in_wonderland

The lady vet is HATED by the male gorilla - likely because she administers injections to all the gorillas, the gorillas get upset/cry, he thinks she’s hurting his t
Trust me, if the gorillas don’t like you, you’re much better off just avoiding their cage.

(If they do like you, it’s pretty awesome though!)

My sister is one of the on-call vets at Wellington Zoo (or she was before she went on maternity leave) - I’ll have to ask her what her standing is with the big apes!

[Freudian_Slit]

@Zsofia

I haven’t started yet - I just had orientation and I have to produce a negative TB test first. (Well, if you flunk the TB test you can still work in the aquarium or customer service, but goddamn if I’m going to not get paid to do a job like the one that I get paid to have burn me out!) I got the TB shot thing today and I keep nervously looking at it to see if it does anything. They’ll read it Monday.

Evidently the gorillas are most likely to not like tall men, but sometimes they just have a thing against you and you can’t work with them.

Oh, man. I passed positive on my last TB test because I was vaccinated when I was a baby. (I was given a chest X-Ray which proved I didn’t have it.) I haven’t been tested in the last ten years, though. I hope my dreams of working at the zoo can still be intact.

[jrtexgunner]

@D18

Do you really? When it comes to Americans and guns, anything’s possible, and I’m genuinely curious.

I wouldn’t presume to answer for Ducati, but I’m relatively sure he was serious. Some of us carry every day for a variety of reasons. Just goes on with the pants.

-JR

[Autolycus]

What’s the zoo’s policy on pandas? I mean, they’re already armed. In the case of an emergency, will they take away their food supply? Because, you know what they say…

[Turek]

@Filbert

Seems a bit odd that they’d want to publish that list really, and I’m curious as to why they state tranquilising is unethical- not 100% effective, yep; not as safe as it seems, yep; potentially too slow to prevent an attack, yep; but they surely tranquilise animals for vet visits if they get ill or injured. Odd.

My completely WAG is that the effective type and amount of tranquilizer for any given animal would be very specific; a raging wildebeest isn’t going to get the same amount or drug as a charging chimp. A rifle is more of a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.

[Oldeb]

@Cunctator

I thought this was interesting too:Is this standard practice at most zoos?

I know Disney’s Animal Kingdom keeps a couple on hand whenever the park is open. They also have a list of animals considered too dangerous to attempt to recapture and are to be shot if they got loose.

The gorillas and tigers are both on the list.

[ducati]

@D18

Do you really? When it comes to Americans and guns, anything’s possible, and I’m genuinely curious.

@jrtexgunner

I wouldn’t presume to answer for Ducati, but I’m relatively sure he was serious. Some of us carry every day for a variety of reasons. Just goes on with the pants.

-JR

Well, let’s digress a bit and fight some ignorance…

1. Ducati is American
2. Ducati is a former cop
3. Ducati is a firearms instructor
4. I’m getting tired of typing “Ducati”
5. Ducati has a gun or 2 saved from a tragic boating accident
6. Ducati had the great fortune to marry a “gun girl”
7. If Duc is wearing pants, Duc is packin’ heat

When you become a cop, your view of the world is changed forever.
Off-duty or retired, you see signs of trouble where others don’t. You see the guy who is going to shoplift, or other things. Your situational awareness is second to none, and you’re always in condition yellow.

The city of Atlanta is known for a few things; Southern hospitality, The Varsity, the MLK center, and high crime. We’re only 3rd behind Detroit and Camden, NJ.

Zoo Atlanta, the clever name for the Atlanta zoo is in one of the worst areas of the city itself, so going un-armed into that neighborhood is folly anyway. Couple that with my aforementioned refusal to face an escaped animal with only ice cream or a stuffed otter in hand, and you can bet that I have at least one gun on my hip.

I do understand that my chances of having to plug a big cat or runaway chimp are pretty small, but it’s not zero. Odds are much greater that I’ll encounter a freelance pharmaceutical rep. in the parking lot looking for investors and doesn’t like to hear “NO.”

Sadly, the world can be a dangerous place at times. Stay behind me & you’ll be fine.

[friedo]

@Filbert

I’d love to know what the thought process was here, ‘until you have the capability to shoot it in an emergency, you can have it, but we want to make sure you’re the first person it eats.’

Remember, you don’t have to be able to run faster than the leopard to get away. You just have to be faster than somebody else.

[WhyNot]

[TB hijack]

@Freudian_Slit

Oh, man. I passed positive on my last TB test because I was vaccinated when I was a baby. (I was given a chest X-Ray which proved I didn’t have it.) I haven’t been tested in the last ten years, though. I hope my dreams of working at the zoo can still be intact.

If you’re serious, then ask them if you can produce the results from a Quantiferon Gold TB test, rather than a PPD skin test. You’ll probably always test positive with a PPD, but the Quantiferon Gold isn’t fooled by the BCG vaccine.

Same advice applies if you’re asymptomatic and you test positive with the PPD. The PPD can read positive if you’ve been exposed to any of the thousands of mycobacteria. The Quantiferon Gold will only test positive if you’ve been exposed to the strains that actually cause TB and a few of the benign ones (far fewer than the PPD). There are zillions of harmless *mycobacteria *species, many of which live in soil and water and on leaves. Avid campers or gardeners often have been exposed to one of them, and will have a positive PPD with no TB exposure.

[/TB hijack]

[horsetech]

@friedo

Remember, you don’t have to be able to run faster than the leopard to get away. You just have to be faster than somebody else.

If you have a gun, that’s even easier. If you miss the leopard, you’re bound to hit another zoogoer and give the leopard a slow, already-bleeding snack.

Sigh, once again, tardigrades fail to make anyone’s list.