Our Mission is in a column in today's Oregonian

Anna Griffin, a columnist for the Oregonian, wrote today about our mission to get the zoo to provide a nursing room. The column can be found here. It highlighted the fact that while the zoo claims to be "very friendly toward nursing mothers", it considers being friendly the fact that it allows us to use their first aid rooms to nurse. Anna learned while visiting the zoo, that not only is there nothing that informs mothers about the fact that the first aid are available, but the staff is really not educated or informed about how "friendly" they are towards mothers.

What really disappointed me, however, was Oregon Zoo Director Tony Vecchio's response regarding the nursing room. He stated that they, "are using every square foot of the zoo. The idea of providing rooms that will be empty 99 percent of the time just isn't realistic. Plus, honestly, this is not something that seems to be an issue for many mothers."

Ummm, empty 99 percent of the time? What? Clearly he has not been to any of the facilities that provide nursing rooms! Additionally, the fact that he said it was not something that is an issue for many mothers shows how out of touch he is with the many nursing mothers who frequent the zoo. Plus, I would like to compare it to the bride's room that the zoo has for weddings at the zoo. Whether it is "an out-of-the-way women's restroom" or not, are we to assume that this is used frequently? I assume Mr. Vecchio was including it when he stated that they are "using every square foot of the zoo".

When we met with Carmen Hannold and discussed the fact that more mothers would frequent the zoo and stay longer while at the zoo if they provided a nursing room, she stated that all nursing mothers are zoo members. Now Tony Vecchio is stating that a lack of a nursing room is not an issue for many mothers. Clearly it shows that the zoo believes that we nursing mothers will come anyway, so they do not need to do anything to help create a better and safer environment for nursing.

It is obvious that it is really not true that that zoo is, "willing to discuss options. And certainly with the $125 million bond measure, this would be a good time to have those discussions" regarding adding a nursing room, as zoo spokesman Bill La Marche stated in Noelle Crombie's article (found here).

The article showed me that we have a long way to go in our efforts to get the zoo to provide a nursing room. It is too bad that they do not consider this a priority.