Op-Ed: Budget Cuts to Boston Zoo Spawns Threats to Kill the Animals

No matter what, the police chief gets on television admonishing us that if we don’t vote for the phony phone tax or the solar energy bill from hell, criminals will run rampant in the streets…like they don’t already…and there won’t be a thousand new cops on the streets as the mayor promised when he ran four years ago, that we still don’t have. Those tactics of fear pale in comparison to zoo directors in Boston, Massachusetts, who because of budget deficits said they will not only have to close down two zoos…but kill all the animals! Even Gov. Deval Patrick, who cut the zoo's budget, said that was hyperbole to the max, jumping the shark and unnecessary scare tactics. One thousand animals in the Franklin Park Zoo, one of the world’s most famous that draws mega crowds of somewhat more than a half-million visitors every year, and its smaller cousin the Stone Zoo in Stoneham. Some day these hyperactive political mouths are going to learn that scare tactics will only work for so long. According to the Boston Globe:

Zoo officials estimate that it would take three years and cost at least $9 million to completely shut down the zoos, and they said the state would be in charge of that process.

The Legislature had originally provided $6.5 million to the zoos – which accounts for more than half of their budget – but Patrick, using a line-item veto, cut the state funding to $2.5 million.

The only thing the over-the-top threat to "kill" the animals did, was to attract nationwide, if not worldwide attention to the threats made by headline grabbing wonks, which in turn, made them look like heartless beasts. Not every budget cut is a matter of life or death, although in this case they threatened death to the animals, knowing full well that funds for the zoo can be raised other ways. There are private donations, raising entrance fees, running Public Service Announcements asking for Save the Zoo donations, imposing a zoo tax and/or reducing the number of animals in their care by selling them to other zoos. If it would really take three years to completely shut down the two zoos, that’s plenty of time to turn things around and come up with unique solutions to an un-unique situation. Just don’t try pawning off any of your elephants to the Los Angeles Zoo; we have a nasty habit of killing off our elephants by confining them in small concrete enclosures that causes them foot problems, infections and death. Our last remaining pachyderm, Billy, lives in lonely solitude waiting for his concrete-free, highly expensive, controversial new enclosure to be built.