UNBELIEVABLE! We actually pulled it off. Our underdog, ragtag, come-from-behind campaign defeated Measure A1. The zoo will not have more than $100 million of our tax dollars to destroy our beautiful Knowland Park. And that’s a good thing, because the creatures that already live there depend on that habitat. (More about them in a bit.)
Tag Archives | Knowland Park Wildlife
Measure A1 Defeated!
FollowBad News for Knowland Park: Judge Grillo Decides Zoo Expansion Plan Is Not a New Project
This heritage Coast Live Oak, Oakland's namesake, will be cut down to make room for the Interpretive Center.
Yesterday Judge Evelio Grillo issued his final ruling in our lawsuit, stating that the Zoo’s current expansion plan into Knowland Park is merely a modification of the 1998 Amended Master Plan project. Sometimes in the court of law it’s possible to find that up is down and black is white. Such is the case here. Our attorneys – Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger – argued eloquently that the Zoo’s plan, which adds a veterinary hospital and an aerial gondola, quadruples the size of the Interpretive Center, and includes other major changes that were detailed in our briefs, results in a new project. In the end, the court disagreed, and the accompanying photos show who loses as a result of the court’s decision.
The tomb of the unknown bobcat: How named captive animals displace unnamed wild ones
California Bobcat. Photo by U.S.FishandWildlifeService
The zoo’s planned development onto Knowland Park habitat currently used by multiple wild animals will include exhibits featuring captive animals that no longer are native to the area–due to loss of habitat and other human activities. It will also include exhibits displaying captive specimens of animals that are still around here in the wild and currently using Knowland Park for hunting, raising their young, and migration between habitat zones. The irony of this seems so obvious that it is sometimes hard for environmentally active folks to understand how zoo patrons can possibly support such a destructive project. One explanation may lie in the fact that zoo animals become personal to people, particularly those who visit often: they are given names like Molly, Milou, Ginger and Grace, the tigers rescued last year from a private zoo in Texas, and people begin the process of identifying with them.
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