To the editor: As a five-year worker of the Larger Los Angeles Zoo Assn. from 1994 to 1999, I watch the messy breakup of the Los Angeles Zoo and its 501(c)(3) help group with heartbreak and deja vu (“Contained in the L.A. Zoo’s messy $50-million breakup,” July 1).
In 1995, the long-neglected zoo was on the verge of dropping its accreditation for antiquated displays, animal deaths and deteriorating infrastructure. Strained relations between the L.A. Zoo and GLAZA are as outdated because the zoo itself. It was an imperfect scenario, however over the next 10 years, each organizations have been in a position to come collectively to create a grasp plan that introduced trendy chimpanzee and orangutan displays, a state-of-the-art animal hospital and a contemporary animal contact space for kids. The reinvigorated L.A. Zoo grew to become a cherished civic treasure reflecting our nice metropolis’s cultural mosaic, a spot the place everybody may embrace the variety of the pure world.
Realizing this success required great work regaining the belief of the philanthropic neighborhood, which has been sorely examined over the previous couple of many years. With out a help group, the town will probably be accountable for the L.A. Zoo’s present and future challenges.
Maybe the L.A. Zoo’s best trait as a public zoo is that admission is inexpensive — lower than half the worth of the San Diego Zoo — to offer entry for a wider viewers. A world-class metropolis like Los Angeles, with its extraordinary and conspicuous wealth, deserves a world-class zoo that may train us as a lot about ourselves as about animals.
John Collinson, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Los Angeles metropolis officers suppose they personal the $50 million collected by GLAZA. Deputy Metropolis Atty. Steven Son claims that those that contributed to GLAZA have been actually donating to the town.
What a complete bunch of — to maintain it well mannered — baloney. I donated for a few years and at no time did I feel I used to be giving cash to L.A. It was for the zoo solely. To recommend in any other case is ridiculous.
Joan Maggs, Granada Hills
