Dallas Zoo presents security enhancements to city council

DALLAS — Dallas City Councilmembers praised leaders of the Dallas Zoo Tuesday for his or her response to a latest wave of vandalism and theft. Dallas Zoo management, nonetheless, say there nonetheless could also be extra security enhancements to come.

“I have to tell you we were all shocked and angry at the recent series of events,” stated Dallas Zoo Board of Directors Immediate Past Chair Lois Finkelman. Her feedback have been directed to the Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee as they sought an replace on the newest security measures on the Zoo.

“You’ve given me a lot of confidence today that things are going to be fine,” Dallas City Councilmember Chad West stated after a presentation by Dallas Zoo CEO Sean Greene.

That reward comes after a month of issues being very-not-fine on the Dallas Zoo.

On Jan. 13, after an enclosure was vandalized, a clouded leopard named Nova escaped. A close-by Langur Monkey habitat suffered related vandalism too. Those monkeys didn’t escape and the Clouded Leopard was discovered exterior however close to its habitat that afternoon.

Jan. 21, a lappet-faced vulture named Pin was discovered useless in its habitat within the Wilds of Africa part of the Zoo. It appeared to have a deadly puncture wound. Dallas Police and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have been known as in to examine.

And Jan. 30, two emperor tamarin monkeys, Bella and Finn, have been found lacking from their habitat within the kids’s part of the Zoo. Outdoor and indoor holding areas have been discovered to have been vandalized. Widely-circulated images of a possible suspect led to the restoration of the monkeys the very subsequent day in a vacant constructing in Lancaster.

An individual of curiosity, Davion Irvin, was taken into custody Feb. 2 on the Dallas World Aquarium, the place he was reportedly asking suspicious questions on animal care and enclosure entry. He remains to be within the Dallas County Jail and has a complete mixed bond of $130,000. 

Irvin has reportedly confessed to his involvement within the theft of the monkeys and different vandalism on the Dallas Zoo that allowed the Clouded Leopard to escape.

But after every incident, officers on the Zoo say their security equipment grew.

Greene advised members of the city council on Tuesday that there’s now new perimeter fencing, an expanded security digital camera system, elevated security lighting and a third-party guide is learning if the zoo wants much more security measures.

“We have to be careful,” Sean Greene advised councilmembers, “because we are community zoo. It’s fun. It’s family friendly. We don’t want it to look like a maximum security corrections facility.”

“It has to be pleasing and aesthetically inviting,” Greene advised WFAA Tuesday afternoon on the Dallas Zoo. “And at the same time it has to do its job with safety and security. Because if we don’t have safety and security, no one’s gonna want to come.”

While police imagine Irvin is the only real suspect in a number of the zoo vandalism together with the theft of the tamarin Monkeys, the dying of the vulture from a puncture wound remains to be a thriller and underneath investigation. DPD’s animal cruelty division is concerned. U.S. Fish and Wildlife brokers are concerned as a result of the lappet-faced Vulture is taken into account an endangered species.

“But these kinds of things shake your confidence in humanity, I mean, the right thing and the wrong thing. And for me, we have to make sure that we prepare for all different scenarios,” Greene stated.

The situation after a month of very uncommon occasions, is the expectation of extra security measures added sooner or later to hold the zoo’s annual one-million guests, and its wildlife inhabitants, protected.

Meanwhile, after a short quarantine, the tamarin monkeys are again of their enclosure and on show. The clouded leopards, on an 85-degree February day, are blissfully asleep and unaware of the security measures being ramped up round them.