WINNIPEG – The city’s new zoo director is a U.S. army reserve veterinarian who teaches canine units emergency medical aid for dogs as well as a respected zoo professional.
Dr. Brian Joseph said Thursday that he’s extremely lucky to have accomplished what he’s wanted to do in life and he’s ready to settle in and develop a world-class zoo.
“I’m really not fit for a normal job,” he said Thursday morning, the day after the Assiniboine Park Conservancy announced he was the new director of zoological operations at the zoo.
“I’ve moved animals all over the world, developed conservation projects, do field conservation with dolphins in Florida…”
He was present when SeaWorld’s first baby killer whale was born, has volunteered with police canine units as well as worked with the military, and helped zoos – including Winnipeg’s – that want to receive American Zoo Association accreditation.
“I’ve done some work with the zoo preparing them for AZA accreditation. I do inspections in the United States and that’s a way to elevate your zoo’s standing,” he said. “It’s a very rigorous process, much more rigorous than the Canadian process.”
Joseph and the zoo’s former director, Tim Sinclair-Smith, are friends.
“We’ve worked together elsewhere and he regards me, very kindly, as his mentor.”
He plans to take the transformation Sinclair-Smith started and make the zoo a world-class facility.
The Journey to Churchill exhibit, which will be “the most massive Arctic-type exhibit in North America,” is only the first step in a multi-year improvement project, he said.
“The zoo is really positioned for growth,” Joseph said. “If you look down the road 10, 15 years, you won’t recognize it.”
Joseph said after a varied career that’s taken him everywhere he’s wanted to go, he’s here for the long haul. He’s always loved rural life and he’s already bought a farm to live on in Manitoba, he said.
“I’ll be here a long time,” he said. “I can’t imagine why I would leave.”
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