Face, meet palm.
Via Soros-funded ThinkProgress:
Rusty, the adorable red panda pictured above, escaped from Washington’s National Zoo today. While everyone is hoping for Rusty’s safe return, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the decrepit state of America’s zoo system — and what that says about America’s budget priorities.
Though zoo officials still aren’t sure how Rusty got out, the National Zoo has been hard-hit by sequestration cuts. The Smithsonian Institute, which operates the National Zoo, is facing a cut to the tune of $40 million. Zoo officials told the Washington Post that they’d deal with the shortfall “mainly through freezing hiring, reducing training and delaying new equipment purchases and construction.”
As a consequence, the Zoo hasn’t been able to fill several keeper and curator jobs, forcing the whole institution to take shortcuts. Two particularly vivid examples in the Post story are the need for Craig Saffoe, a big cats trainer, to now care for goats, anteaters, and cattle as well as the risk that lack of time for training will force keepers to subdue more animals with potentially harmful sedatives.
HT: Jay