That's because not everyone who goes to work and does science for a living is a kooky misanthropic zoologist.
I really doubt, for example, that there were many chemists, physicists, engineers, or even the majority of the University of Texas's biology department present.
Nutty people showed up to listen to a nut. They likely knew what they would hear. Like the man said, he was preching to the choir.
Please reassure me. The Texas Academy of the Sciences is full of nuts? I really want to disbelieve that, but I can't do that in light of the evidence presented here.