Shame: Baby Orangutan Used as Collateral for $100,000 Loan at Florida Zoo

January 15th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Scott Page/Gulf Breeze News Three-year-old orangutan Indah plays alongside her mother, Sara, at The Zoo Northwest Florida. The Zoo hopes to keep the two animals together.

After surviving a tumultuous 2008, The Zoo Northwest Florida begins the new year with a renewed sense of optimism and determination.

The Zoo suffered several financial crises in 2008 that forced it to rely on volunteer efforts, government grants totaling $275,000 and a large private donation to remain open.

The AZA has developed Species Survival Plans (SSP) as guidelines to manage the populations of endangered species in captivity. The orangutan SSP recommends that a mother and child not be separated until the child is seven or eight years old.

Danyelle Lantz, executive director of the animal park, explained that the donor intends to be a long-term investor in The Zoo and that the baby orangutan would only leave under a worst-case scenario.

“She has a private zoo herself, and she’s very blessed in her financial situation,” Lantz said. “She has both the passion for animals and the financial means to step in and help, so she is working with the private owners of the zoo to try and get the debt paid off.

“We worked out a loan that is set up with a demand note with the baby orangutan as collateral. If she’s able to work out the deal with the owners, the baby orangutan will never leave the zoo, and that’s what we’re really hoping for.”

In a letter to Lantz, a representative of PETA urged The Zoo to cancel the “heartless and immensely cruel plan.” The letter went on to say that separating the mother and child would “surely leave the 3-yearold with lifelong emotional scars.”

Lantz disagrees.

“Is it ideal? No, and my analogy is if you were 13 and your parents sent you to a boarding school,” Lantz explained. “Is it ideal? No, but could you still end up at Harvard? Yes. It’s kind of the same thing. It’s not the same love and care as being in mom’s arms until you’re seven, but it’s not detrimental to the baby, mother or the father to separate them at this point.”

Chuck Emling, owner of The Club Family Sports in Gulf Breeze and volunteer president of The Zoo Board of Directors, told Gulf Breeze News that moving animals was a common transaction for all zoos.

“That’s what zoos do,” Emling said. “They breed and sell animals to cover their costs. We made this decision in order to provide care for the other 1,200 animals at the zoo.”

Lantz agreed.

“There are about 20 percent of the animals in our zoo that are owned by other zoos, and about the same number of our animals located at other zoos across the country,” Lantz explained.

The PETA letter reminded Lantz that, “As executive director of a zoo, the wellbeing of individual animals must be your top priority.”

Lantz defended the actions of The Zoo and said that she is determined to make decisions based on what is best for The Zoo and the community.

“I feel very comfortable with the ethical and moral decisions that we have made,” Lantz said. “At the end of the day, this is a non-profit that’s created to serve the good of the community. What’s good for the community as a whole and what our guests want to see may not be consistent with what SSP recommends, so they are not always my first thought.

“My first thought is making sure we take care of all the animals that we can, that we display them properly, and we do so in a way that is educational to the public. My second thought is that we keep the zoo here because that’s clearly what the community wants and that’s the only reason I took this job.”

The Zoo is taking a more proactive approach in 2009, increasing the number of special events to try and drive attendance and generate more support while serving the community better.

“Right now we have special events planned for each of the first six months of 2009 and some that we know we’ll repeat from 2008,” Lantz said. “What we’ve seen is that it’s on these days that our attendance spikes so we want to try and do 12 this year.”

The events begin this weekend with Hibernation Celebration on Saturday, Jan. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“Its focus is educating people about the animals that take it easy during the winter months,” Lantz said. “We’re going to have a bounce house, face painting, art and crafts and games for the kids so it will be a fun day for them to come out.”

Another new event is a after-hours, adult-only Red-Light Tour of the zoo that will focus on the mating rituals of the zoo inhabitants. The Zoo also has an event planned for Earth Day, and will host its other annual events including Feast With the Beasts, Zoo Boo and Zoo Lights.

Lantz explained that her hope is that these new events and some possible state and federal grants can generate enough financial support to prevent The Zoo from facing the same challenges it faced in the second half of last year.

She referred back to the controversial private donation and added that she would do all she can to fulfill her obligation to The Zoo and the community despite the cost.

“I hope that we are able to continue to work with the benevolent contributor and help the zoo move forward, because longterm, if we are successful in making this happen it would be huge for the zoo,” Lantz said. “It could help us reach a position in which we are out of debt, where there is money to renovate and make repairs and bring in new animal exhibits, and that is what we are working for.

“I told this to the board and to the management team, and if it means that I am not the right person for this job I’ll gladly leave, but there is no one animal that I put ahead of the entire zoo,” Lantz asserted. “It’s not how I’m made, and I’m not going to sacrifice any animal in the sense that it would cause them harm.

“Knowing that this decision will take care of the animals and provide them with a good life, we are still fulfilling our mission. That’s what I believe the zoo is here for.”