From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Jim Fouts, 42, an unaccredited
exotic animal broker/transporter who in
1990-1991 surfaced as a central figure in
routing animals from AZA-accredited zoos
to canned hunts, is now breeding about 25
species at his Tanganyika Wildlife Co. ranch
near Goddard, Kansas, and promoting the
sale of meat and antlers from captive-reared
elk, after several years of breeding and selling
ostriches. For several years beginning
in 1977, Fouts captured South American
monkeys for laboratory suppliers; then ran
an exotic bird import business; and operated
an avian quarantine station from 1982 to
1985. Because zoos are now more particular
about who they deal with, Molly McMillin
of the Wichita Eagle reported recently,
Fouts now trades mainly with “privately
owned zoos, circuses, and wealthy animal
collectors,” and finds Kansas “a good place
to do business because it does not have as
many restrictions on raising exotic animals
as does California.” Fouts is, however,
advising Sedgewick County on a proposed
ordinance to ban private ownership of
“inherently dangerous” animals including
“undomesticated cats over 15 pounds.”
Presumably this does not include feral
domestic cats.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Closed to
the public repeatedly during the
November/December federal budget impasse,
the National Zoo made headlines earlier for
introducing a unique 400-foot Orangutan
Transit Line enabling the six resident orangs
to swing from cables 35 to 45 feet above visitors
as they cross at will from the current ape
house to a schoolroom in the original monkey
house, built in 1907. Unauthorized descents
from support towers are inhibited by a 9,000-
volt electric skirting around the tower platforms.
The orangs were introduced to the
transit line in pairs, to see what one could
learn from watching another. In the schoolroom,
the orangs are learning to use a computer
with a special symbol keyboard, which
may eventually enable them to talk to visitors.

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