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Honolulu Zoo Suffers Loss of Accreditation

Daniel Ramirez / Flickr
Daniel Ramirez / Flickr
Kyle Nishioka / Flickr
Credit Kyle Nishioka / Flickr
The meerkat is sad.

The Honolulu Zoohas lost its accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Earlier this week, officials met with executive members to discuss the city’s application for re-accreditation.  AZA officials said they were pleased with the zoo’s direction in maintenance and animal care.  But the request was denied after concerns were raised over adequate funding from the city on a consistent basis. Officials encouraged Honolulu to re-apply for accreditation when funding issues have been addressed by both the city and its community partners.

The 42 acre zoo currently has an operating budget of $5.6-million and employs 76 people.  For the 2017 fiscal year, which begins on July 1st, Mayor Kirk Caldwell is proposing a $6.8-million dollar operating budget and an increase to 86 employee positions.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums is the largest and most comprehensive zoo accreditation body in the US.  Out of the 24,000 facilities accredited by the USDA- only 10% are AZA certified.  Rob Vernon is the Senior Vice President of External Affairs for the AZA. 

 There is a one year waiting period before Honolulu can re-apply for AZA accreditation.

Nick Yee’s passion for music developed at an early age, as he collected jazz and rock records pulled from dusty locations while growing up in both Southern California and Honolulu. In college he started DJing around Honolulu, playing Jazz and Bossa Nova sets at various lounges and clubs under the name dj mr.nick. He started to incorporate Downtempo, House and Breaks into his sets as his popularity grew, eventually getting DJ residences at different Chinatown locations. To this day, he is a fixture in the Honolulu underground club scene, where his live sets are famous for being able to link musical and cultural boundaries, starting mellow and building the audience into a frenzy while steering free of mainstream clichés.
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