Ron, thank you for doing this. Guys, it's always great to be with you, man. This is actually more personal. I see your faces. I feel like I'm really part of the team instead of just the guy on the bulletin board getting blasted all the time.

I'm sorry about your Reino loss. I appreciate it, guys. You know, listen, our oldest rhino in North America, second oldest black rhino in the world and had a good life. But you know what really sucks, guys, is the older I get, the more you start seeing animals that you know and even people that, you know, start to pass these things that are have been constants in your life for decades. And they're not constants anymore.

It's just a it's one of those things. The only thing undefeated in life is by the time this was depressing or depressing. Have you watched Tom Brady?

Are you sure? Ron, are you sure about what you're alleging?

Well, I mean, Father, time is not as effective on some as in others, but in the end, he will be. So, Ron, I want to know because we've got some questions for you and we're grateful here. We're stuffing your hair into the post game show. I want to catch you up on everything that's happening around here. Greg Cody's mad at everybody for a variety of different reasons. It's hard to understand. Greg, you're about to leave here dissatisfied with how today's show went.

Correct. You're going to be mad about how today went and your son also betrayed you. You want to get Ron McGill caught up on what happened here today in the post game? Well, first of all, seeing Ron face always makes me happy.

So thank you. It's a lot. It means a lot.

It's lifted my spirits. Yeah. It's been a been a weird show for me. Hasn't been particularly a lot of fun for me, you know, criticism coming in all areas. And you seem bored by it. By even your ex.

Yeah, I am bored, but even your explanation doesn't have energy. And we've been criticizing his energy all show, Ron. And so the way that he's chosen to discuss this with you is to be heartbroken and weary and tired and just filled with yawning, different forgetting that we're on the air and just sounding board again. Ron is always on Greg, no matter what his mood is. He just had a RINO die on him. The man is grieving.

And when we ask him to bring the energy, you watch him bring the energy because he's a professional, Greg. He doesn't sit here and just say, what can you guys do for me? I'm sitting here. Can you guys just do stuff for me? Like energy?

I like a t shirt, Greg. I like deer on it.

It's nice. Thank you. It's half deer. Half bear. I see that. Yeah, I got it there. Exactly. I got it in Colorado as a matter of fact. Of beer. No, don't worry about me. I'll be fine, you know.

Thank you. Yeah. And it ends with Bear Mike there. Thank you for all your good work. Thank you for giving us the blessing of a stunt that would argue about some things. Deer bear or deer bear. Derek's going for his beer. Ron, thank you again for being with us. Did our listeners bring that our listeners do anything in terms of getting some money in your endowment?

Because now that we are in now that we did, as a matter of fact, the hey, the hey bear had sold out.

I couldn't believe it. It sold out. They sent me a nice little check for the endowment. So there are a lot of listeners don't really paying attention. And like the Hey Bear, which was such an off the cuff thing, I'm just always surprised about how things turn out. So, yes, the listeners have been great and I've gotten a lot of personal notes here, the Twitter account, so I apologize for not answered back right away. I'm so inept when it comes to this social media stuff.

I just don't know how to do it. So but I really I'm reading all of that stuff and I really appreciate it.

So what can you tell us? Because this has been a heartbreaking year at the zoo for a couple of different reasons. And I can't imagine, given your relationship with those animals, the idea of you losing the giraffe and the black rhino in in the span of a couple of months, I don't know that you would have a more emotional time in terms of grieving than that, because I'm sorry. Forgive me. It's Pongo is the giraffe and Bongo. Bongo.

Bongo Antonacci. Yeah.

And so what can you tell us about their stories just so the audience can go in your relation to those giraffes?

He was just he was our tallest giraffe. He wasn't necessarily old. He was beyond middle age. But he he still had some good years in him. Had he not had this traumatic injury to his foot, which broke a bone, which we tried to treat, we immobilize them, which was successful in and of itself is a story because you can't really immobilize giraffes successfully. It's very difficult because they're so tall that you have to manage the way they go under anesthesia, how they fall.

They can snap their neck. They can do all kinds of bad things during the anesthesia process itself. And then just waking up as a challenge. Well, we got through that. We were able to make custom shoes for him. We were able to get him up. He was walking beautifully. He was doing great. We were also happy because this was against all odds. We got that far and the shoes were able to mobilize his foot enough where he doesn't need a cast.

You know, it's like a racing horse. And they say we're not racing horse brakes. It's like you got to put it down. Well, it's kind of the same with direct. You can't really put those. Those limbs in a cast, so much weight depends on it. So what we got him through that he got, I'm sure he was doing great. Jesus was fantastic. It was a happy, happy story. And then all of a sudden he he threw the shoes and did something to where he refracts that.

And once we were able to mobilize and look at the fracture, it was such a horrible fracture. There was no way to treat it. And we had to make that very difficult decision to put him down. That was really difficult because, again, he was a draft. You guys have been with me. Dan, when I brought your family out there, I grew up on the draft platform. You would never come for anybody.

And I'd start screaming, oh, like an idiot. Just like I sound like a crazy man up there. But I did that on purpose because he knew when he heard that sound, that was a bridge and getting carrot's, he knew, hey, that's the sound that always preempts me getting care. So I'm going to head that way. And, you know, the keepers, the public, they're always amazed when he never thought he'd hear me scream like that and come running right over to me.

So, you know, that always gives you a kind of bond that's really special. You always think, wow, the animal really loves you. When I realized I didn't really love me, he loved the character that I represented. But still, there's a special feeling there when you call a giraffe. So it was great because I spent, you know, gosh, a great ten years with him and it was fantastic knowing him and getting to know him.

And every time I had to do a television spot when I was doing something for Discovery or anybody else, he was my go to dress. Oh, come on in. I know he's going to be in the shot on my shoulder. You stick out that fourteen inch tongue and it was a great shot. So he was a dependable animal. He was always very confident. He was nervous around cameras. He was great. The same thing goes for Toshie.

Satoshi was even more difficult for me because Toshie I unloaded and he arrived from Japan. He came on a boat from Japan in nineteen eighty three, long journey overseas on a boat, and I drove the forklift, unloading them off the truck and opened that crate. When you first stepped out, all full of pomp and circumstance, just stomping around is this big two thousand pound animal. Twenty five hundred pound animal just stomping around that big horn you think Oh man that's such a badass little.

He's going to come back and look at everything a rhino should be. And then within two or three days, he was coming up to me and kind of nudging me and I'd scratch him and he laid down and scratch his belly. It was like a dog, except this is a flip and rhino. Damn you scratch the belly of this rhino and he lay down just like a dog doesn't and spread his legs and just get scratch and close his eyes and sometimes even his back leg.

You know, when you scratch a dog, the dog's leg kind of goes back and forth. He would do the same thing. So for thirty plus years he was my guy. I mean, any time I bought somebody back, I bought all kinds of celebrities back there. Gloria Steffon, Shaquille O'Neal, you know, all all the big guys. When I had to do a special tour like that, Toshie was was a mainstay. And especially for me, Dan, to be honest with you, I know I'm rambling, but the Make a Wish Foundation, I do so much work with them, I cannot tell you how many kids are fighting terminal illness, went back their meditation and how many parents told me on more than one occasion, parents would tell me.

That's the first time we've seen our kids smile in such a long time. When you have this massive animal come up to a small, frail kid sometimes to have a trach in, they have oxygen in and this rain would come up to them so, so gently. It's as if he knew that this kid was compromised and needed some affection. So I don't want to keep on rambling, but these are the moments that for me were indelible, tells me how animals connect to people and how they can help people in so many ways more than just a rhino.

He was a bridge to something special for these kids and for that he was priceless.

Roy, what do you have for Ron McGill? Me, my wife and daughter went to an animal shelter a few weeks back, and I know how clean and how well run the actual shelter was. What makes for a good animal shelter? Well, just that.

I mean, when you go in and it's clean and you see the animals are not doing any kind of horrible pacing, they're not kept in these tiny confined enclosures. But when you go into a place, it's clean. You see the help is happy. You see the animals are alert. They don't seem overly depressed or frightened. I mean, that's not to say that a lot of those animals are not going to be that way just because of the situations that drove them to the shelter in the first place.

But I'm telling you, Roy, you get a vibe when you go into those places. You get a vibe right away, how it smells, how it looks, the attitude of the staff, you know, as opposed to someone just being custodial and caring for an animal to someone acting like that animal is their own personal pet. Those are the things that to me are great reflections of great people who do it not as a job, but as a passion.

Billy, what do you have for Ron McGill?

Ron, I don't know if you saw the story of Joe, the pitching in Australia. So in Australia, there was Joe the pitching and Joe the pitching was suspected to have come from America as part of a pigeon race. And they think that Joe got on some sort of boat that was moving crates of some kind or something. And then. Made its way to Australia and the Australian officials wanted to kill Joe, the patient, because they said that he is a biosecurity risk because he came from America, there was a tag on his claw.

I don't know what you would call it, but he had a tag. Yeah, he had a tag on him and they traced it back and they said that he was a racing pigeon. Now, the story to the turnover this weekend when they said this was a fraudulent tag and he did not belong to the United States, he was an Australian pigeon. So his life was spared. Are their animals one? Have you heard the story, too?

Are there animals that have come to America that you are aware of that are biosecurity risks that need to be eliminated?

First of all, I hadn't heard the story, but yes, there certainly are animals that do that and they don't necessarily have to be big vertebrates like birds or reptiles or mammals. Probably one of the biggest biosecurity risks we have of insects. I mean, when we look at something like the lorrel that has been introduced here from Asia and is wiping out entire avocado groves, I mean, the economic impact of these invasive species coming in and destroying crops, destroying that type of economic engine is huge.

So, yes, biosecurity risks do exist. Things with birds know. I understand Australia's point. I don't know if I would have destroyed the pigeon right away. I would have put him in quarantine and try to screen him for anything you might be carrying. But, you know, it's like you can't bring a pet parrot from Mexico into the United States without going through a very intense quarantine period because he could be carrying something. For instance, it's called Newcastle Disease.

Newcastle disease can be carried by parents that can survive, but they can transfer to poultry and wipe out entire poultry farms. So these are huge risks when it comes to our agricultural industry, when it comes to our livestock industry, yes, there are certainly biological threats that have to be screened. And the job is enormous for us Fish and Wildlife, our US Department of Agriculture. That's why they have these permits required. That's why they have these quarantine procedures required.

But it becomes a bigger problem now with the amount of transportation, whether it be boat ships, planes, people taking their own stuff, smuggling. So people think that the government is trying to be crazy and they're trying to be just manipulative and controlling what they're trying to protect our own economy here in the United States and our health, because they can bring in, as we've seen, whether it be Ebola, whether it be covered. These things all start, generally speaking, from animals.

Greg, what do you have for Ron McGill? Hey, Ron, I wonder, did a dodo ever live at your zoo? And what would you say is the the legacy of the extinct, flightless bird? Well, the dodo is the symbol of extinction.

Know. No, I never lived on a second.

Hold on a second. Hold on a second. What happened there, Greg? No, no, no. Go ahead, please. No, please tell us what happened there.

I just had a phone ring and a landline. Shut it off. Yeah, a landline. I apologize.

I learned my lesson a long time ago. They used to call me because I have the cricket ring on my phone and they used to on purpose, call me while I was on the air just to flustering longer.

Probably called me just now. Are kidding me. You're probably right. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to sabotage you. Right. Anyway, no, the dodo was extinct.

So he's calling me to look at this like Ryan calling me right now. But just see these guys want to clowns a bunch of a bunch of juveniles, I think I heard it might bring on Cody's desk a long time ago.

The dodo became extinct. But it is the symbol because it became extinct, because it was just children over hunted and and that was something that was an extinction directly associated with human beings.

So that is a symbol of pleasure.

Getting a good laugh that I've got, that's a really fun, really fun run on me. You know, I've been on mute. I learned my lesson years ago with these clowns run at Zoo Miami.

You guys have those really archaic looking machines that make these wax figures that have a six hundred percent markup on them. I wonder how much of a moneymaker that is for you guys, but it's an absolute rip off. And why hasn't there been any real advancements in wax figurine technology in over thirty five years?

Why are you being so hostile? Mike, I had my phone and your trick couldn't get you when you tried to get the crickets going off at the hospital.

Perhaps, but you charge me more dollars for these wax figures. And it's the same machine that I saw.

There was a ten hippo's.

Now there are ten hippo's or ten down Laboratoire Hippo's, and those go for a lot more than four dollars. We tried to eliminate that years ago and people went ballistic on us. They said, we're the wax museum. I want my kids to do it. I did it when I was a kid and I want my kid. If you don't put those things back, we're never coming back to the zoo. So they're back. People pet happily. And you know what, three or four dollars of the wax figure, it's nothing.

How much do you pay for a drink when you go get your little vodka or whatever?

You drink it, the bar, your little vodka and a little vodka. A little like your little. Bring about that like you drink the vodka and then you piss it away, it's great and you like it, like it, and you would be so right that your children and your grandchildren, it's a memory.

Hold sit down with you. Want your memory loss of tax breaks. It cracks over time. By the way, your little vodka drinks cost me thirteen dollars over the weekend.

Go piss vodka. What do you think it cost them to make it? Roy, what do you have for Ron McGill?

Ron Pablo Escobar had sent a couple of hippos back home with him in Colombia and now they have overpopulated the place.

What can be done to actually curb the overpopulation of those hippos are not much.

You know, it's not like you can go and neuter and spay hippos pretty easily. Unfortunately, that piece of property that they have expanded into is kind of like a forest. It's like an Amazon out there. So they've got a big problem and that could be a real invasive species. Venezuela has a huge problem because it started with four hippos and now they're over 100 hippos out there and they are very destructive animals. And I got to be honest with you, I won't be surprised if someone ends up having to make the drastic decision of having to go out there and shoot those hippos because of the destruction that they're giving to that environment.

How much destruction would those hippos have towards the environment?

Phenomenal. Understand that they eat hundreds of pounds of vegetation a day. They can expand waterways. They can overcome, you know, different types of habitats, change habitats. They are in many ways what an elephant is to the savanna. Elephants will go into a forest and that's how the savannahs were established, that African elephants just killed all the trees. So they became grasslands somewhere and say, OK, well, grasslands are good. But when you change an environment that drastically with an animal that does not belong there, you're opening Pandora's box.

And that's the problem, because by eliminating the habitat that will be eliminated by the hippos, you might be eliminating animals that are very important in maintaining a balance, maintaining a food supply, controlling a disease. You're opening Pandora's box. These are things, you know, it's hard to predict, but it's always dangerous when you mess with Mother Nature. Man Ron, good talking to you.

If you want to contribute to the things that Ron is doing, he's always done this show for free. His love of the animals is clean and pure and true. And if you give to his endowment, you will find that his care and love will take care of your money and that money will take care of the animals. Saron just tell people they can go to the world of Suey, dotcom and underbellies angels where billies angel of nuance and do good deeds.

You can find where the link is world of suey dotcom. But if they don't want to go to world of Stewy dot com and get bombarded by cartoons and T-shirt sales, where can they go directly?

Just hearing this run zoo Miami dog donations. And then be clear, you say you make sure your donation is is restricted to the Ron McGill conservation down and you'll get a personal letter from me and my forever gratitude. Thank you, sir.

The work that you do and have done across many decades has been impactful. And we always appreciate your time is available to us.

One last question, Ron, before you go, what can you tell us about the metallurgic, about the way the meadowlark? The Meadowlark is a beautiful bird, has a beautiful song. And, you know, I think Meadowlark Lemon was a great symbol of the meadowlarks, happiness, positivity and a great athletic bird. How about that?

Yes, that is exactly what we were going for. Thank you, Ron. Our new ventures called Meadowlark Media, and that's the reason for it for all of those symbolic things. So thank you for not a fat bird.

It's not a fat bird. It is not a fat bird.

It's a healthy bird. It's an athletic bird. It welcomes you in the morning, has a beautiful song. And it's always a sign of positivity. Yes.

And also the link to sports and Meadowlark Lemon with the distinct name. He covered it all. Thank you, Ron. We'll talk to you. Bye bye, guys. So, Mike, what are we doing here before we get out of here for the day? Because we were talking off air and we haven't decided whether we can or should work tomorrow, because while it's an important symbolic day, it's also a day where we'd be basically doing a preview of the inauguration.

We wouldn't be reacting in real time to anything that was happening with the inauguration because our show would be earlier than that. There can be sports that we can be talking about, although it might feel a little bit particularly silly and almost a little bit disrespectful tomorrow to just be talking sports. I don't know whether we'd want to welcome Greg Cody back so he can have a more positive experience, but his energy level stunk today.

Look, he's literally sleeping in the room right now, but for sure, like you're 50 feet from the microphone, Greg. Like what? What do you. I wasn't speaking into the microphone.

Why do I have to be like this when I'm not speaking into the microphone? Like it on?

Roy knows what I mean, that with all the vaccine stuff, are you feeling a little drowsy today because you do seem sluggish?

What am I an. Doctor, I can't I can't tell you why I'm sluggish. Do you feel sluggish?

I mean, maybe a little bit, but I'm not using any excuses now. I'm concerned a bit to now I'm worried. You have seemed out of sorts today. It is it has been strange in terms of what your energy level has been and your your lack of focus has been impressive, even by your standards. OK, thank you for that.

I appreciate the first compliment. I've gotten the whole show, but no, it's it's all good and I feel great.

You know, I feel fine like the Beatles sang in nineteen sixty four. And the flip side, she's a woman.

Am I right. Right, right. You're right.

You know I think we're all good. OK, thank you. You're not all good today. We will. Should we do a show tomorrow Mike. How should we do a partial show. Maybe a little bit of a show and maybe we can fire up the zoom?

I honestly think that there won't be much to react to, in part because we don't have working televisions because we prioritized and sports. Wednesday is notoriously a slow sports day. I think we should react on Thursday personally. Also, I'm not getting paid for this so I can save on gas. I really appreciate it.

OK, that is that is a cost cutting measure. The first of Meadowlark Media. It's going to be a giant company taking big swings. We got to save money on gas and not work too much.