{"id":319546,"date":"2025-10-20T21:43:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/319546\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:43:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:43:21","slug":"new-york-times-article-spurs-national-support-for-watertown-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/319546\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times article spurs national support for Watertown zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/17\/nyregion\/at-a-fading-island-of-misfit-toys-zoo-animals-face-an-uncertain-fate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uE8.hVyL.PQuM3S3nE6Kj&amp;smid=url-share\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/17\/nyregion\/at-a-fading-island-of-misfit-toys-zoo-animals-face-an-uncertain-fate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uE8.hVyL.PQuM3S3nE6Kj&amp;smid=url-share\">New York Times article<\/a> on Watertown\u2019s Zoo New York has people from all over the country reacting and supporting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The title: \u201cA Beloved Zoo of Misfit Animals Is Almost Out of Money.\u201d The article on a small zoo by a newspaper with a large reach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful. We\u2019re so excited about it. It\u2019s a mix of gratitude and disbelief to see this much attention coming from not just our community but outside of that. New York City, other states, other countries. So it\u2019s been an amazing, somewhat surreal experience,\u201d said Mark Irwin, Zoo New York interim executive director.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The New York Times article, published last Friday, took note of the animals, the people who work and volunteer at the zoo, and the dire need for funding or animals there could ultimately be euthanized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The article struck a chord with readers who took action to help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIn 2024, we had 200 memberships and we\u2019ve sold 216 since Friday,\u201d said Irwin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It\u2019s not just memberships. Other readers commented on the story that they were donating to the zoo, from $100 to $2000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The zoo\u2019s financial hardships have been known for years with leaders going to Watertown and Jefferson County lawmakers asking for public support, but it hasn\u2019t been fully given &#8211; something readers of the article can\u2019t seem to believe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Irwin says the newspaper article, on the heels of a successful weekend fundraiser, is moving the zoo in positive steps and he hopes it can continue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe want to connect people and wildlife and what we uniquely do here is that we have native wildlife and our focus is to promote by example, what the value of New York wildlife is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Irwin isn\u2019t sure what the total is from the donations coming in because of the article, but says he wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s $10,000 or more. <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WWNY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; A recent New York Times article on Watertown\u2019s Zoo New York has people&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":319547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,347,10180,405,403,6985,5226,5225,5228,5227,5174,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,160283],"class_list":{"0":"post-319546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-donations","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-times","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-support","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-zoo-new-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115408679956969170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}