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Zoo Makes Necessary Divorce From Director's Venture

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

Lowry Park Zoo President Lex Salisbury has helped transform what 20 years ago was the country's worst zoo into what Child Magazine rates as the nation's best for its size.

Salisbury has been successful because he's a hard-charging, detailed leader who combines an entrepreneurial spirit with a love of animals.

But Salisbury's drive has placed him in an ethical briar patch with Safari Wild, a for-profit exotic-animal park that Salisbury and a business partner are building near Lakeland.

Creating a private business that can profit from one's public role is never a good idea. And tying the publicly supported zoo to the director's private project was a conflict, plain and simple.

It's encouraging that the zoo and Salisbury are now extricating themselves from this mess.

The venture became a source of controversy when 15 patas monkeys escaped from Safari Wild onto surrounding land. Most have since been caught, but the episode raised questions about Salisbury's dual roles, particularly since some zoo animals were to be kept temporarily at Safari Wild.

Reporters understandably found Salisbury's public position and private venture suspect and began investigating. The Tribune's Baird Helgeson reports that some zoo staffers did work on behalf of Safari Wild, mostly distributing information and arranging or attending meetings. While no major abuses were discovered, the conflict is apparent.

The zoo board, which originally had approved Salisbury's involvement in the private park, has decided to completely divorce the zoo from Safari Wild. And at Salisbury's request, the board has ordered an independent audit of all dealings between the tax-supported zoo and Safari Wild, another wise move.

The board and Salisbury need to make a full accounting and assure the public nothing untoward occurred.

But the matter should be kept in perspective. The public suffered no loss. This was a mistake, not a scandal.

Since Salisbury and his partner have bought their own animals, Safari Wild's plans were not dependent on the use of zoo animals. Salisbury he says he thought allowing animals to stay there would benefit the zoo. He has long pushed for Lowry Park to acquire a large, fenced tract in a rural area where animals could roam free and be "refreshed" before returning to the zoo.

Until the zoo could find its own sanctuary, he thought nothing wrong with allowing some animals to use Safari Wild for a retreat. Salisbury says he had no interest in making money off the zoo. He allowed free lease of 10 acres for the zoo's horses, which pull carriages for visitors. Any reimbursement for the animals' care would have to be approved by the board.

Salisbury's motives, we trust, were honorable. His years of effective and honest service should not be forgotten. But they don't justify an arrangement that, however well intended, could have been abused.

Salisbury should be free to pursue Safari Wild on his own time, with his own money and staff.

But he should be careful to keep his venture from interfering with job number one: continuing Lowry Park Zoo's success.

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