Word: bronxful
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There's an amusing video making the e-mail rounds through the New York City environmental crowd. In it, Stephen Saunter, a press officer at the Wildlife Conservation Society and New York's Bronx Zoo, sadly addresses an employee he is about to lay off. The governor has just announced severe budget cuts at the zoo, he says, "so there's no easy way to say this ... we're going to have to let you go." The camera pans over to reveal that the just-fired employee is a porcupine...
...zoological humor - no one is firing porcupines. But the 109-year-old Bronx Zoo and other zoos and aquariums around the country are facing serious budget cuts as the state and city governments that supply much of their operating costs respond to the recession. In New York State, Governor David Paterson has called for cutting $5 million in funding from the Zoo, Botanical Garden and Aquarium Program budget - dropping total state funding for 75 wildlife and nature centers in the state from $9 million to $4 million in 2009 - and eliminating it altogether in 2010. In North Carolina, state officials...
...Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium, Paterson's proposed cuts would strike especially hard. Between them, the zoo and the aquarium stand to lose about $3 million, which translates to 30 staff positions. New York officials say the state's environment funding - where the zoo and aquarium money comes from - will be funneled into capital projects like bridges, on the grounds that institutions like zoos can tap private funding. But at the same time, donors to the Bronx Zoo and its sister institutions across the nation are getting squeezed by the economic crisis, leaving the zoos little to fall...
Lisa Bonet's child's name leaves Bronx Mowgli Wentz feeling inadequate...
...Paterson, facing a $15 billion budget shortfall, wants to cut 55% of state funding to institutions like the Bronx Zoo in 2009 and 100% of state funding in 2010. According to Calvelli, state dollars make up a small percentage of institution budgets - less than 10% in the case of the Bronx Zoo - but any cuts will only add to anticipated reductions in endowments and other public funding. If the state pulls financing, Calvelli says, service and program cuts as well as (human) layoffs are possible...