by Jenny Holmes

Created on: February 11, 2009

It is not everyone who can say they have taken a Bengal Tiger Cub out on a lead whilst in employment but that is just what I did when I worked as a Marketing Manager at a Wildlife Park in Devon UK. I had worked in the tourist industry for a number of years but when I was approached to ask if I would like to try and put some life back into a flagging Wildlife Park and bring in the "punters" how could I resist. Trying to market living creatures must be the same as marketing inanimate objects I thought. How wrong I was!

I arrived on my first day for work dressed, I thought, very professionally in a tailored suit and high heels. Wrong! Most of my time was spent outside in the Park with the owner trudging through grass and mud to view all the animals in his possession. The following day saw me attired in jeans and trainers which then served as my uniform throughout my employment there. The Park housed such exotic creatures as tigers, lions, pumas, wolves, bears and basically any number of wonderful and endangered species. They were in large enclosures made to look as near unspoilt a habitat as could be made for them and the general public could walk around and view them, sit on the lawns with their picnic or go into the cafe. Now the cafe was another matter. The cafe was a room within the big house lived in by the owner. This room had a mismatch of plastic chairs and tables, old worn out sofas and chairs with a huge fire burning in the grate when it was cold. It also seemed to house all the chickens and other animals that fancied coming to eat the crumbs off the floor, try to pinch the customers food or just warm themselves by the fire. A total health, safety and hygiene nightmare for the local council but I bided my time as I did not want to make huge waves on this score on my first day and besides the customers thought this way of running a cafe very quirky indeed.

As time progressed I started to get school parties interested in coming to the Park and having a guided tour and also went to fetes with some of the animals to promote the Park. One such occasion I took a baby goat called Heidi on a lead and we walked around the fete with leaflets handing them out and talking about the Park. Heidi loved people and was very happy wandering around until I stopped to chat to an elderly couple about the Park when suddenly the woman looked down, screamed, lifted her straw handbag into the air and showed me a large hole in the bottom of it where Heidi had decided to have a

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