Recently the Minnesota Zoo announced that due to a variety of reasons, some of them financial, they could no longer host dolphins as part of their aquarium exhibits. A popular attraction which attracts thousands of visitors yearly, this created an outpouring of support for the dolphins and an enormous public relations issue for the popular zoo.
However, instead of just letting the conversation regarding the dolphins simply drop, the Minnesota Zoo has decided the best thing to do is to bury the discussions with fluff press-releases regarding absolutely laughable topics instead:
- Injured woodpecker finds home at Minnesota Zoo
- Minnesota Zoo’s Asian wild dogs have two litters of pups
A woodpecker injured in a fall from his nest in the wild has found a new home at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.
So this is a nearly extinct woodpecker injured in a remote part of the state and rushed to the Zoo to be rehabilitated and save the species, right? Wrong. This is a common woodpecker which is found throughout half of the United States and most of Canada and was not at all newsworthy yet just about every local media outlet ate the press release and shoved it right back out the door instead of continuing to splash the far more interesting dolphin story on their front page.
The pups, born April 12 and April 14, are just starting to move about the exhibit. Keepers expect them to spend more time outside the den in the coming weeks. Because they were still keeping close to their den, keepers don’t know the number of pups but think there are four.
While these animals are far more rare than the woodpecker, the story is no less boring. What it amounts to are a bunch of facts that no one cares about (because they’re dogs and not dolphins) and some guesses about what’s going on since no one, even the Zoo staff themselves, are really 100% sure about what the animals are doing.
The Minnesota Zoo staff, instead of wasting its time and money on press releases to cover up their huge cluster, should be concentrating on finding ways to intelligently deal with the loss of their beloved dolphin exhibit. While cute little stories about common woodpeckers being brought back to life and dogs with a name which could easily be confused with a shortened form of a word no longer used in posts here, are a huge boon for lazy journalists happy to push the “FWD” key on their computers, perhaps the Minnesota Zoo should concentrate on far more important aspects of their jobs–like finding ways to keep people interested now that they’ve lost one of the only interesting exhibits at their facility.
What do you think about the Minnesota Zoo’s dolphin debacle and how they decided to handle the press? Are you disappointed that journalists are so quick to push out press releases written solely to bury important news with trash? Are you going to miss the dolphins? Do you think the woodpecker story and ahole dogs are worthy competition? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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May 22nd, 2012 at 7:24 am
Relief. It was sickening to watch the zoo continue to try and push their dolphin program even after the first couple of dolphins died. We had considered not renewing our family membership this year, but with the zoo being so close to us (and such a hit with the kids) we did renew this year.
May 22nd, 2012 at 7:37 am
Shit, I’m upset that a building that’s just about 10 years old is now a worthless piece of scrap because some moron didn’t realize that salt water corrodes metal. That’s what I get out of it, the tanks were corroding and couldn’t be repaired. Didn’t the “OLD” dolphin tank last a lot longer than this brand new one? And is anything in there now or is it still empty? Now we’ll have two empty dolphin tanks, one in a building completely designed to showcase it. What about the ampetheatre above it?
Splended.
Then again might have to wonder why we’re trying to keep saltwater mammals in a place that’s as far from the ocean as you can get in North America.
Maybe they could do a mermaid exhibit with costumed actresses. At least it would draw some paying customers.
May 22nd, 2012 at 8:38 am
I am happy the dolphins are leaving. They were rather boring and never seemed to be in the front tank. The large fish tank and the tidal pools in the same area always had many more kids at them.
Hopefully, they can find something to fill the space that is both interesting and rare. Something the dolphins were not.
May 22nd, 2012 at 9:15 am
My kids love the dolphins. It’s easily their favorite part of Discovery Bay. Of course, that’s when they can actually see them, which seems to be half of the time. Still, it’s extremely disappointing to see them leaving.
That said, it sounds like the issue is out of their control if their latest press statement is to be believed.
As for the numerous press releases as of late, that’s nothing new for the zoo. It seems that every animal fart is reported and those reports never fail to make it to print.
May 22nd, 2012 at 9:36 am
The woodpecker story was better:
I’d love to see videos of that!
May 22nd, 2012 at 9:45 am
I’m particularly annoyed at the implied tone at the start of Ehmke’s recent statement, as if this is all a result of us being a bunch of idiots.
“There appear to be several misunderstandings which we would like to clarify.”
No, a misunderstanding is when people incorrectly interpret what you say. The issue here is that you didn’t really say shit, and people became puzzled and annoyed at that. Why? Because they fucking CARE ABOUT THE DOLPHINS AND THE ZOO! As Bill suggests in the original article here, the (at best) casual mention of this is what caused the outrage. To then appear to be surprised by the public’s reaction is disingenuous. We’re now left, dear MN Zoo, in serious doubt of either your intelligence or your merit.
Oh, and Lee Emke’s fresh new clarifying statement? See if you can find a link to it on the main page at http://mnzoo.org – I couldn’t. (You’ll have to wait until the incredibly annoying and intrusive dinosaur animation stops to be able to click on ANYTHING, or at least that’s my experience.)
HINT: It’s not in “Press Room” where one would expect to find it. <– This adds to the problem, Mr. Emke!
It's buried here: http://www.mnzoo.org/animals/animals_dolphin.asp
May 22nd, 2012 at 11:34 am
There must be something in the water in Dakota county making large organizations look for ways to make the public forget things. Notice how county Dist. Attorney Backstrom is making a big deal about prosecuting a right to die case of assisted suicide. funny how soon that became a big deal after one of his asst distr. attorneys Kevin Golden, was reprimanded by 2 District court judges for intentionally calling mistrials to be able to try having 2nd and 3rd shots at defendants. It is the 2nd time in 5 years he has been called on this and his action effectively is like trying to push the restart button on a trial because the prosecutor had not done their work well.
Suddenly the local media is enamored of Backstrom’s going after an assisted suicide case and making headlines. Just a coincidence I am sure.
May 22nd, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Point of clarity: we don’t have Dist. Attorney’s in MN, we have County Attorney’s.
May 22nd, 2012 at 7:39 pm
The loss of five dolphins since 2006 could be the real reason that this exhibit is closing. Was there a coverup? Were these deaths do to maintenance issues or untrained staff? Also sounds as if state legislators had the wool pulled over their proverbial eyes on this funding.
May 23rd, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Who you calling lazy? I woulda briefed that stuff no matter what. Our push is to post early and often, no matter how small a news item is. I’m just following marching orders. Today, it’s two stories and two briefs. Lazy? I don’t think so.
May 24th, 2012 at 1:46 am
Wow, Mulch. Don’t you realize that it was the media (Sun Thisweek, in particular) that broke both stories you cite?
How does that “make the public forget things?”
Wow. Just, wow. If there’s a clue out there, obtain it.
May 24th, 2012 at 8:51 am
On a positive note, maybe getting dolphins out of Minnesota will save the species from having to endure names like “Taijah”.
May 24th, 2012 at 11:01 am
cripes, fine the “media” is doing its job. My main point isn’t in regard to the media, but rather the propensity of this county attorney to be a grandstander in general.
interestingly the “media”(local tv) today reports that Backstrom pressured the Dakota county medical examiner not to testify on behalf of a defendant in a case. The medical examiner has alleged that Backstrom implied her job was not secure were she to testify for a defendant in such a case.
this is probably a separate string topic (the dakota county attny), I think its just painfully obvious that the county attorney is hyping a media friendly item like assisted suicide to lessen the public impact of his office’s spurious ethics. Not to mention these hijinks cost the citizens in court expenses for trials/cases thrown out or forced to be re-tried.
May 25th, 2012 at 9:14 am
and now the zoo is informing me (via a member email) that “As of Monday, May 21, the 3M Penguins of the African Coast exhibit is expected to be closed for two weeks for repairs. ”
This exhibit is less than a year old!
May 30th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Re: mulch’s comment #13 above: http://sunthisweek.com/2012/05/23/minnesota-supreme-court-reverses-murder-conviction/