PLEASE HELP US SAVE THE JOBS OF TWO KEEPERS AND A CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES

Hi everyone,

This is my first thread, basically at Harewood House BirdGarden, management are planning to make two keepers redundant and get rid of loads of birds including a critically endangered breeding population of Waldrapp Ibis.

They have recently made really extravagant purchases on unnecessary items like new uniforms because they were the wrong colour, hideous fencing and the relocation of a perfectly good office (so they can make the old one into another tea room to get more money out of visitors). These expenditures totalled over 100K which would have paid the wages of these keepers for another three years.

The keepers work long hours, 365 days of the year and have all worked there for years. The Harewood House Management have recently appointed a new manager Mr Mike Schafer who has bulldozed his way through the place making mistake after mistake and now he want to make loyal and hard-working staff redundant and get rid of several important populations of brids, like the aforementioned Waldrapp Ibis.

I don't know if this will do any good but i have started a facebook group in support of the keepers and the birds, in a few days we have got over 100 members but we need more if we are to make Mr Schafer stop and listen.

So please if you have a spare moment can join my facebook group in support of these guys,

Log In | Facebook

I hope that link works, if it doesn't you can find us by searching for the Harewood House facebook page - i have posted a link there or search in groups for Save Harewood Houses's Bird Garden.

Thank you soooo much for taking the time to read this, I hope you can join.

 

I have put a link on the zoo chat facebook page as well now.

 

A very nice collection which I had the pleasure of working at for a few days nearly 10 years ago. If the keepers are the same as those I met, then I can concur that they are a dedicated bunch who receive too little support from the wider Harewood estate.

It would be a big shame for this bird collection to downsize or even follow the recent demise of Leeds Castle.

 

Leeds castle is in a similar situation, they have just opened comments on the main article here

Last tweets to sound at aviary

its a damn shame that we're losing these brilliant collections, if nobody speaks up they will dissapear

 

It can be very hard to see past the emotive and get to the reality that a zoological collection of any kind has to work as a functioning business as well, as such offices, uniforms and fences have their place and may be much more important to the long term sustainability than you might expect.

My personal feeling is that if you care about the people and animals that work at this establishment, you are doing them a disservice by speaking so negatively about the management in public. I doubt that you are a member of staff there or very closely affiliated for you to be making these statements publicly.

Damaging the appearance or reputation of any aspect of Harewood Bird Garden, ultimately damages the people who work there and the animals they keep.
By all means raise awareness and support for the keepers threatened with redundancy, but consider what you say with a little more care.