The Breaking News blog over at tampabay.com recently posted a seemingly humorous story under the headline “Seen a monkey loose in your subdivision?” It is of course full of the hi-jinx you’d expect when 15 monkeys escape and run rampant through Lakeland. You know, zany, wacky and all of that shit.
Here’s the bit that bothers me, though - the monkeys are owned by one Lex Salisbury, CEO of Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. Yes, the same Lex Salisbury that capped a tiger 4 times with a shotgun at the zoo in ‘06. You may recall that he blamed a crappy new zookeeper for not locking the door properly.
So here we have Lex, who is running some kind of freaky ass zoo at his house, allowing 15 monkeys to escape. Seriously, a zoo, people. Scope the facts: the dude has a 50 acre ranch in Tampa with warthogs, antelope, bongos, zebras, oryx, and pygmy hippos. The monkeys escaped from something he calls “Safari Wild” which sounds an awful lot like a front for his growing menagerie. What the shit is going on here?! Fact check my ass (with pictures) by ctrl+f’ing ’salisbury’ on this page.
Does something seem amiss here? First of all it is just weird. Secondly, the dude obviously has some kind of animal fetish and his $266,000 per year salary helps feed it (by contrast, the mayor of Tampa only makes $150,000). Thirdly, the dude sucks at keeping animals safely locked up in their cages.
P.S. If you have a lot of time to kill, scope out this 9 part series on life at the zoo.
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16 Responses
I just love his name. “Lex Salisbury: Special Monkey Operations at LPZ”
Your LOL Lex made me almost cry when I saw it.
U is Rights
zookeppin is majors hardes.
It is inspiring to see such interest and dialogue regarding this important issue. As founder of Tampa’s Zoo Advocates (www.TampasZooAdvocates.com) our groups mission has always been that of advocating for the welfare of the animals, staff and visitors of Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo.
Rest assured that our group has no issue whatsoever with Lex or any person embarking upon a business venture for profit. It is only when someone in business begins making decisions that compromise the welfare and safety of animals as well as humans that it would be a disservice not to hold them accountable for their actions.
As a native life long resident of the Tampa Bay area I have a personal interest in seeking nothing but the success of our community’s zoo. Our group holds nothing but the highest regard for our zoo friends entrusted with providing for the “comfort” and “quality” of life of their animal family.
So too however do we believe it continues to be our responsibility to empower ourselves and the public with factual information regarding the welfare of animals in our community.
You will find that there are other important issues that our group is seeking to address, such as:
1) The pattern of animal escapes at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo as well as Wild Safari
2) The close relationship between Lex Salsibury, Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, the Zoological Association of America (ZAA) and the exotic animal trade.
3) The welfare and safety of the animals, staff and visitors to the organizations guided by Lex Salisbury.
4) The fact that we as taxpayers own the land that Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo sits upon as well as continually contribute to its fiscal operation.
We encourage you to visit our groups website at http://www.tampaszooadvocates.com so that you can make educated decisions regarding this important issue involving the welfare of animals within our community as well as around the world.
With warmest regards,
Jeff Kremer
dude, you need to get a life.
and jeff kramer… you too. jesus christ, why don’t you people do something worthwhile. i feel hypocritical writing this 4-liner, but seriously. jesus christ.
Amen to Joe! It sounds as if you guys are on a witch hunt! Get over it (& yourselves). Especially you Jeff. You sound as if you want to be the new CEO of the Zoo or something and will do whatever it takes to smear someone else for your own personal gain and whatever “Zoo Advocates” wants to get out of this.!
Seriously, who the fuck says “Amen to that!”? You’re at the wrong house. Secondly, Joseph, who now has commented twice with the really devastating sentiment that anyone involved with the Splog enterprise and probably blogging in general needs to get a life, might I suggest that you read more blogs and get a better feel for how to be an asshole in the comments? Seriously, the overall genre of “get a job,” “get over yourself,” and “get a life” comments are for people who got on the Intertrons yesterday, from the public library. Do us all a favor and move to the front of the useless comments line and compare us all to Hitler. Then you’ll be done and you can go be afraid of shit you don’t understand somewhere else.
if you all have such a problem with the way animals are taken care of, you do it better. if you had any knowledge of the establishments being run, you would know that the people in charge of them are extremely intelligent and have a passion for doing something good for the world that is completely unselfish. and this “freaky ass zoo” is not at someone’s house.. check out the real facts. and furthermore, the cages you want the animals locked up in.. when was the last time you saw a wild animal, in a natural habitat in a cage? never? yeah, that’s how it’s supposed to be. so maybe instead of writing bullshit blogs about people getting the facts right, you could get the facts right about this and do something a little more good-spirited and worthwhile with your time. or you could go find some monkeys and take better care of them and hopefully they’ll bite you. or get eaten by a loose tiger.
GOOGLE SNIPER, EVERYONE GET DOWN!
Right? WELCOME GOOGLE ALERTS USERS!!
crikey: Hey, Fucko, we like to call it inter-species erotica.
Justin: Intriguing.
I can’t believe I’m still subscribed to this particular post. It was two months ago, Crikey! Live in the now!
@brightlight,
sensitive, are we?
This article is a crock of shit. In your efforts to be amusing (you failed btw) you completely disregarded the facts.
The monkeys scampered off only after some idiot tipped off the media. They came flying in low with their helicopters, freaked all the animals out and made the situation 10X worse. Lex runs an amazing park there. He has made Lowry Park Zoo one of the most successful zoos in the world, he has worked his ass off to do it. He is NOT the gun toting fatcat that you describe. He cares for the wellbeing of animals far more than you or anyone else who mindlessly read witch hunt news or inaccurate blogs.
Please do me a favor and think before you spread your unfunny bullshit. Consider the damage.
Hi James,
Please see this article. Unless my reading level has dropped even lower, I believe the headline says something about Lex being forced to resign?
Thanks for dropping by and have a nice day.
It is important not to let this issue “slip” from the public’s focus. Lowry Park Zoo Deputy Directory Craig Pugh announced the return to “business” following the resignation of CEO Lex Salisbury.
Tampa’s Zoo Advocates began our efforts towards advocating for the welfare of our animal and human zoo friends long before the association between Lex Salisbury, Lowry Park Zoo and Safari Wild became known. Our initial focus was on other important issues of concern, such as:
-Code 1 Animal Escapes, most unreported to the public.
-Health Code Violations in the zoo’s Food Services department.
-USDA Animal Welfare Violations.
-Security/Safety Risks of Visitors/Employees.
-Unusually Excessive Employee Turnover Concerns.
The above mentioned issues of concern continue to remain unresolved within our community’s zoo. New leadership at the helm of our community’s zoo will be critical towards restoring public/taxpayer trust.
So too however is it imperative that the action/inaction of the Zoo’s Executive Board of Directors be scrutinized to ensure that other issues of animal and human welfare concern be addressed.
Tampa’s Zoo Advocates will continue to strive towards seeking to advocate for excellence within our community’s zoo.
Respectfully,
Jeff Kremer
Tampa’s Zoo Advocates
http://www.TampasZooAdvocates.com
I did read the article. That was the reason for my post. I was looking for information on the resignation and I found this blog instead. My post may be a little harsh, but it is only because I have found so many cruel personal attacks against Lex from people who don’t know him or have been taken in by his portrayal in the media. I know its quite inane arguing with someone on a blog, but I sincerely believe its a tragedy that it had to come to this. I have known him a long time and he is a good man. I always thought that when I saw some rich, white guy getting crucified on the news for some financial dealings that he was probably a scumbag and that he deserved everything he got, justice was done etc… But I’m shocked at how they have portrayed him.
The truth is, he made some very powerful enemies (the mayor among them) and they have been gunning for him for a long time.
I can guess you won’t believe any of this, but I felt that someone had to try to explain his side.
Thanks, I did have a nice day.
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