The media fukkkks up yet again .... PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE OWNER OF HALLS GAP ZOO We would like to personally thank the public for their messages of support and well wishes during this stressful and difficult time. That being said we would like to clarify some of the issues raised by concerned people. Most importantly in regards to the TV coverage of Greg (myself) saying that we would select certain animals and go to the safety of the dam. We were asked by the CFA media controller during the evacuation meeting in Halls Gap to have the media out to the zoo to explain the plans in place at the Zoo. The four TV crews were here for over an hour during which time it was explained to them ON CAMERA that we had an extensive fire plan developed in conjunction with the CFA which included fire tracks, clearing around the perimeter fence of the property to aid in halting the advance of the fire and that all the animals, where needed, have cooling systems which includes having a generator placed down at the supply pump in the event of electricity being lost. The question was asked if we had plans in place for the worst case scenario that if the fire was out of control in the Zoo what would happen. The response to this was in the unlikely event of this outcome happening and we had to flee to save human life we would take the most critically endangered species in vehicles down to the dam. To our utter dismay the media decided to edit this and portray this worst case scenario as our only fire plan. I will never go out of my way to help the TELEVISION MEDIA out ever again as this was the most disgraceful case of sensationalism and lies you can imagine, while I was spending all this time with the media my time would have been much better spent with preparations but I was doing the CFA Media Division a favor. At the time when the media was here on Friday we only had Allison and Jacinta feeding animals and checking water sprinklers etc, Yvonne handling the office and Greg taking the media around on the property as the other staff members had decided to leave due to their own personal fire plans and other staff members that did ring and offer to come out could not do so due to the road closures. On the day and overnight we had 9 CFA fire trucks patrolling the property as well having a CFA quick fill pump set up at our dam for all the fire vehicles in the area to use to fill up if required. I had spent well over 40 minutes grading a track into the dam for the CFA to use on the day with our Caterpillar loader which was also offered to the CFA incident controller for use that day anywhere in the district for use in fire control. Some people have questioned as to why we didnt evacuate the animals in the 4 hour window that we had from when the evacuation order was given. Firstly if we did attempt to catch and box up these animals in 44 degree heat they would have died from heat stress. Secondly how could we transport them out when the roads were closed by the police and as you all know the advice given is not to travel during a fire event. Thirdly think seriously of the logistics, how would it even be remotely possible for 4 people to catch and move them and where would the animals go, the other zoos couldnt accept them for quarantine reasons. Fourthly should I have forced the other staff members to stay against their wishes and then commit a crime by driving on potentially dangerous roads? And most importantly we have a fire plan developed over many years and that has cost many $thousand to implement that, in this case, worked perfectly and will do so in the future. There have been a lot of comments in regard to the zoo being located in a bushfire zone. The reason the zoo is successful is due to its beautiful location and can these people tell me where in Victoria there is a 100% safe location. This business has operated for 31 years and has never been directly impacted by a fire so just maybe it is in the correct place. A big part of our day was also spent constantly patrolling the zoo watching out for ember attack and we had two vehicles equipped with fire carts/pumps to put out fires started by these as well as wet hessian sacks/buckets etc to smother them in case we couldnt get a vehicle close enough. As I am writing this our neighbours from across the road just walked in to thank me for building a fire break around their home with earthmoving equipment on Friday, they were away in Melbourne at the time and have just arrived home to be surprised by the work that had been done in their absence by other neighbours and myself. To have read the hate filled and negative comments posted about ourselves and our decisions is incredibly disheartening as between Yvonne, myself and our staff we have dedicated the past 6 years of our life to endangered species breeding and are fully committed to the welfare of both our animals and life on this planet in general. We fund all of our conservation work out of our pockets and receive NO government funding. Lastly rather than posting ill informed and judgmental postings why dont you offer support to people going through an incredibly stressful time and who could be faced with having to make heart wrenching decisions at a time that their own life could be under threat. We cannot express enough our heartfelt gratitude to the CFA and DEPI fire crews who continue to fight these and other fires, as well as being incredibly proud of all of our dedicated staff. Yours Greg Culell
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 22:51:40 +0000
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