Zoo Life- The End

My stint as a docent at the Prospect Park Zoo came to an end a few months back and I thought I'd take a moment to talk about why.  Partly just for the irony of it; you'll see what I mean.

Here's how the story began, but not why I ultimately quit.  I was part of the animal handling program there.  This had been going on for a number of years; docents who had gone through training and been certified were able to present animals to the public during tours and scheduled presentations on  weekends.  Not all of the zoo animals mind you, only ones the animal keepers had designated as tractable based on species and the individual, like chinchillas, chickens and some snake and lizard species.  It was a rewarding program for the docents and a nice chance for the public to get up-close-and-personal with some of the animals, including a chance to touch them.

Rather suddenly, the program was ended.  To my knowledge, there was no unfortunate incident that brought this on, and that's the kind of rumor that spreads pretty quickly.  This seemed more like a policy decision from the managerial level, probably from someone new to the zoo who was worried about liability.  That's a guess though, we were just told that the program was no more.  I was disappointed, but also recognized that I was just a volunteer there and as such didn't have any say in policy.  Some of the other docents took it a lot harder, there were meetings (including tearful pleas) and emails and petitions on the web to appeal the end of the program.  Frankly, it was all a little melodramatic for my tastes.

At this point though, I'm still a loyal volunteer and staying out of the fray.  I even received a call from the NY Post (blech) on the matter and had nothing but good things to say about the zoo.  Until the day I was informed that a new condition of being a volunteer was that I had to sign an agreement saying that I would never make any public (via media, Facebook, email or however) negative statements about the zoo.  Excuse me?  I had no problem with restrictions about what I could say while I was at the zoo acting as a representative, but trying to restrict my free speech as an individual outside of the zoo?  That was unacceptable to me.  If I was an employee, it would be illegal to require that of me; we have whistleblower protection laws in this country for that.  If they did ask their employees to sign the same agreement, I hope the illegality of it comes back to bite them in the ass later.

I don't like it when people try to inappropriately assert authority over me, or anyone.  People who do so are generally bad human beings even beyond their pathetic little power grabs.  Being the CEO of my own company has made me rather sensitive to it.  So told them I wouldn't sign and why and left the zoo on my final day of volunteering sniffling as I did so.  I really did enjoy my time there until some asshole  who didn't even have the courage to identify themselves came along and ruined it for me.  God I hate having principles sometimes.