{"id":228133,"date":"2026-03-20T06:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T06:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228133\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T06:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T06:29:07","slug":"s-f-zoo-to-cut-jobs-amid-financial-pressures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228133\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. Zoo to cut jobs amid financial pressures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>San Francisco Zoo leadership this week announced a \u201cstructural reorganization\u201d that will include the cutting of a \u201csmall number of positions,\u201d according to an internal email obtained by the Chronicle. <\/p>\n<p>In a letter to zoo employees, CEO and Executive Director Cassandra Costello said the organization has faced increased financial challenges in recent years and cited rising operational costs and dwindling attendance and revenue patterns as the reason for the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The restructuring is happening as the zoo prepares for what leadership described as a \u201cpivotal year\u201d in the letter. It also comes on the heels of scandals that shook the zoo and may have damaged its credibility among visitors, leading to declining ticket sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/san-francisco-zoo-investigation-19410379.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A 2024 investigation<\/a> by the Chronicle revealed serious concerns about animal welfare at the 100-year-old zoo, as well as the safety of employees. In one case, a grizzly bear got into an employee area and chased a zookeeper. <\/p>\n<p>The investigation also found internal turmoil and staffing issues, with multiple employees alleging poor management practices, compromised case standards and a loss of trust between rank-and-file staff and zoo leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the time, the scandal shook zoo and city leadership, right as the zoo was working to strike a years-long deal with China for rights to bring a panda in a new state-of-the-art facility, a deal which has yet to come to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>Costello said the reorganization is intended to better position the zoo to meet both current challenges and new opportunities, and that employees affected by the job cuts are expected to be notified within a week of her email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecisions like these are not made lightly,\u201d Costello said in the message, emphasizing that the changes are aimed at ensuring the long-term stability and sustainability of the institution.<\/p>\n<p>Zoo leadership also indicated that additional details about the restructuring and its impact on staff will be shared in the coming days. Meanwhile, management has encouraged employees to reach out to a supervisor or leadership with any questions and concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco Zoo leadership this week announced a \u201cstructural reorganization\u201d that will include the cutting of a \u201csmall&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-228133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bay-area","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}