The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) released a statement Tuesday saying they will be denying accreditation to the Columbus Zoo after an incident report. The zoo says they will appeal.
The AZA says they held a hearing on Friday, Oct. 1 to vote on the decision. AZA President and CEO Dan Ashe said in the statement that there are issues of financial mismanagement and a “long record of intentional and repeated animal transfers with non-AZA members intended to supply baby animals — mainly big cats — for entertainment purposes.”
Ashe goes on to say that despite their conclusion that the Columbus Zoo is “working hard to correct the issues,” they no longer want to accredit the zoo due to the severity of the accusations.
“It is never a good day when AZA loses a member, especially one as renowned and respected as the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. But AZA membership is conditioned on adherence to our accreditation standards — the global ‘gold standard’ for modern aquariums and zoos — and our independent Accreditation Commission has determined that Columbus has failed to uphold those standards,” said Ashe.
Read Ashe’s full statement here.
According to the AZA, the Columbus Zoo has 30 days to appeal the commission’s decision. They will have to appeal to the AZA Executive Committee, who will have 45 days to grant the appeal. If granted, they say the appeal will be brought to the AZA Board, who could overturn or uphold the original decision. The Columbus Zoo has been accredited since 1980.
The Columbus Zoo said in a statement that they do intend to appeal the decision.
“The accreditation visiting team commended the Zoo on 17 points of exemplary work in all aspects of Zoo operation, and the commission’s vote was not unanimous,” they say.
They say the AZA team commended the leadership changes following the resignation of their previous CEO and CFO, who they say left “in response to concerns about the acquisition and disposition of Ambassador Animals in the Animal Programs department.”
They say the AZA wants to see a sustained change after the departure of the previous leadership. This spring, the zoo says, a forensic analysis of the financial management was conducted, which they say is still being investigated by the State of Ohio.
“At the time of the AZA inspection by the visiting committee in July, we believe the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium met the AZA standards required for accreditation. The poor decisions of a handful of people should not negate the good work this team does and how much staff members contribute to the AZA through committee work and leadership roles. Nobody currently working at the Zoo had anything to do with the position we find ourselves in today. We’ve acknowledged the wrongdoings of the past. We’ve also made changes and updated policies to ensure those cannot happen again,” said interim CEO and President of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Jerry Borin.
Zoo officials seem to think the accreditation denial was too large of a reaction, suggesting in their statement that the AZA could have “tabled the Zoo’s accreditation for one year,” which they say would have given them time to sustain changes for longer.
“The AZA first accredited the Columbus Zoo in 1980, and as a long-standing AZA organization, we are disappointed that the Commission denied our accreditation after all of the positive changes that were made to meet AZA standards. These changes were in place prior to the accreditation inspection and have been sustained since. Based on our staff’s exemplary work highlighted in the accreditation report, we plan to appeal this decision to the AZA board of directors and hope they will decide to Table us, which maintains our AZA accreditation and gives us a year to show dedication to sustained change. We feel this is a fair decision,” said Borin.
The zoo says operations will not be affected, however, the accreditation loss will impact staff from continuing “leadership roles in Species Survival Programs (SSPs) and the Zoo from participating in SSP breeding programs, which will impact species conservation programs.”
The zoo will be able to apply for accreditation in September 2022 if the appeal is denied.
Read the full Columbus Zoo statement here.
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