From Jamie Barker.
I AM sure I speak for all Islanders when I say that we are immensely proud of our zoo and the wonderful work it does in the world of conservation. This is why it’s so sad to see it in financial difficulties.

However, and it pains me to say this, it’s not very surprising if we’re honest. For you see our wonderful zoo is actually – oh don’t make me say it – is actually a pretty boring and very expensive place to visit.

The last time I took my children there they were extremely taken with the standard issue dickie birds and seagulls which hung around the tables of the world’s most expensive café and were both free of cage and free to look at. They weren’t so taken with the exotic birds hidden behind foliage in their cages.

It’s difficult to explain to a young child why a bird hidden in a cage, rather than a seagull stealing your hotdog, is more impressive, but that’s where we are. My pleas to stop looking at the free birds fell on deaf ears and so they’d huff and we’d squint into the cages and say things like ‘What’s supposed to be in here?’

I’m not advocating emus and elephants that you can actually feed with popcorn out of your hands, like you can in that awesome zoo in France – I’m well aware that’s just a ruse so that we pay to fatten them up so the French can eat them – but how about a petting zoo, with goats and things? Or a few totally awesome animals? Like penguins?

I appreciate they’re not endangered, but come on, everybody loves penguins and at least you can see them, not like the Aye-Aye which, let’s face it, probably doesn’t even exist. Get a tiger or a killer whale and it can be a sort of loss leader.

I do appreciate that the zoo is in a very difficult situation as conservation done properly is by definition a pretty poor spectator sport, but again I think I speak for the people of the Island when I say that we really do want to visit the zoo more regularly – just give us a reason to do so, because paying a large amount of money to see animals we can’t see and others that don’t do anything just isn’t cutting it.