Cst
Thanks for all your nice replies. As keepers, we were never in it for the money, as the money was only at minimum wage, and it was only our passion for our animals that kept us there. As for the train - well thats a joke. For the first time in YEARS, the hotel actually gave us £100,000 to spend on the wildlife park - on the proviso that we ONLY spent it on the train! At that point, we had no idea that they were thinking about shutting us down. So - we duly got in the professional and had the train and tracks overhauled, and spent the entire amount on it. 10 MONTHS later, they informed us they were shutting us down. They then told us that they would keep the train running, in season, for their hotel guests - although what the hell there was to look at from the train i have no idea. They also told us that they were turning it into a 'gardens', where there would be fantastic flower displays, and that it would remain open to the public, long after the animals had gone. Well that was a lie too, because apart from the odd weekend, there is no obvious sign that it is open to the public. What they also failed to realise, was that the majority of their guests (we know, we asked them), only repeatedly went back to that hotel BECAUSE of the wildlife park! One regular hotel visitor even stood up in the middle of the dining room, and absolutely ripped the manager to pieces (verbally) for doing such a disgusting thing. For that, we KEEPERS all got into trouble for letting the guests know what was happening (it was still supposed to be kept quiet). For that, we were told we had to sign what was effectively a 'gagging clause'. Well, you can imagine how that went down. So - I went straight to the press! What did I have to lose?? After the story was printed, I was hauled in to the managers office and told that if I spoke out again, I would lose my redundancy pay. Nice.
Now I know some of this may sound like bitterness or a bit far-fetched, but I can promise that every single thing I have said can be corroborated. I have nothing to gain from lying. And I am sure that most of you will not be in the slightest surprised by Warners behaviour - like so many companies, what goes on behind the scenes is appaling. Thanks for reading - its good to know that members of the public also miss it, and it wasn't just us keepers x
