S.F. Zoo Founder of the animal sex tour quits after clash over birds' care

[matcom]

<snip>

Jane Tollini, the world's most famous penguin keeper and creator of the popular Valentine's Day animal sex tour, has left the San Francisco Zoo.

In a decision that no one seems happy about, Tollini decided to quit because she couldn't stand seeing her flock suffer during a recent deadly outbreak of chlamydia and didn't agree with a veterinarian's course of treatment.

"I'm going through withdrawal and separation anxiety," Tollini said. "I'm practically lactating."

Over two decades, she turned a wayward bunch of Magellanic penguins into the most prolific captive colony on the planet and also the most publicized --

thanks to worldwide media attention when the birds embarked on a frenzied 6, 200-mile mock migration around their pool in January 2003.

During her 24 years at the zoo, Tollini gradually became its most visible employee.

Sixteen years ago, she pioneered a Valentine's Day sex tour about animal mating habits that has been copied by zoos throughout North America. And the penguins' peregrinations made her known from Sydney to Saskatchewan. Her colorful quotes popped up everywhere -- from CNN, the BBC and NPR to the New York Times, National Geographic and Der Spiegel.

Most recently, she was profiled in the spring issue of Via magazine as one of the 10 people who make San Francisco worth visiting. Others included Giants superstar Barry Bonds, Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and restaurateur Nancy Oakes.

"I've always had this personality, for good or bad," said the 57-year-old Tollini. "I'm very self-conscious about my weight, that my face is falling, and that I'm old and wrinkled and gray. If I stopped and thought about it, I probably would have just died of insecurity. But I got out there on Penguin Island and thought, 'This is my living room. And if I fall over or have s -- on my face, screw it. You're in my house.' "

But Tollini herself hasn't been on Penguin Island since March 12, when a dispute with head vet Freeland Dunker prompted her to quit on the spot.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/10/BAGJHD5K0H80.DTL

*what were YOU thinking* :spank: :D