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Pictures of Prospect Park Zoo in the 80s? — Brooklynian

Pictures of Prospect Park Zoo in the 80s?

yankeefan
yankeefan
edited November -1 in Park Slope
Does anyone have any pictures of the Prospect Park Zoo before it temporarily closed from around 1987-1997? When it had the Elephants, Lions, Tigers, Bears and all the other big animals?

Comments

  • obamanut
    obamanut
    Wow, back when they used to live in those dungeons. I'll never forget the heavy funk that hung low in the old "Monkey House" that resembled a one-story version of the Brooklyn House of Detention, with each different type of monkey in a separate jail cell.

    My favorite though was the Elephant House, where the elephants used to plod back and forth on an empty platform, behind a marble railing.
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    It was a horrible zoo back then. Purgatory pretty much. The elephants were chained by the leg and the other animals only had twice their size in elbow room. Taylor was treated better in the Planet of the Apes.
  • jf22561
    jf22561
    I remember stopping some kids from poking a large parrot with a long stick - they were really awful! It was a terrible place which, thankfully, no longer exists in that form!
  • veets
    veets
    And the end-game reason the zoo was finally closed and re-done had to do with these kids who climbed in with the bears one night after the zoo was closed. One little boy got eaten. They killed the bear to recover what was left of the child. Yeah, I know it is a gross story. Well almost immediately after that the zoo closed for a long while and was re-done as what it is today, which is a rather charming low maintenance petting zoo combo with animals who can be made not tortured in their enclosures.
  • krs10a
    krs10a
    I am so glad they changed to a more humane zoo!
  • atirenin
    atirenin
    wow. here's that story about polar bears eating the boy from the Times

    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDB1739F933A05756C0A961948260
  • caseopele
    caseopele
    Wow, Darwin award anyone? I feel sorry for that kids parents but at 11 years old I was pretty damn sure that climbing into a cage with polar bears was a really bad idea.
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