The relationship between Lowry Park Zoo, its president Lex Salisbury, and Salisbury’s private Safari Wild obviously has been getting the scrutiny it deserves. And has deserved for some time. The transfer of those three zoo rhinos to Safari Wild symbolized and illustrated the intermingling-of-assets and conflict-of-interest issues.
On balance, Salisbury has done a good job, and the Lowry Park Zoo is a credit to this community — but this is serious enough to have warranted Salisbury’s leave-of-absence pending audits.
But “Rhinogate?”
The “gate” affix (“Troopergate” most recently) is a trite media staple that over- dramatizes, over-hypes and over-states whatever it references. It was a surprise that communications savvy Mayor Pam Iorio, who dubbed the Zoo-Safari controversy “Rhinogate,” would traffic in it.