Defunct Zoo Nebraska struggles to find home for animals
Posted: Monday, June 16, 2008
ROYAL, Neb. (AP) -- The remaining staff at a small zoo in Royal has been struggling to find new homes for its exotic animals since it was forced to closed after a 2005 mishap.
Volunteer director Ken "Junior" Schlueter said he and the Board of Directors have realized that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will not be issuing another operating license for Zoo Nebraska.
The USDA is in charge of licensing and inspecting zoos.
Without a license, Schlueter said, the zoo can't sell its exotic animals or even ship them to a new home.
"The USDA has us in a spot that we cannot do anything," he said.
The seven-acre zoo -- which houses a number of exotic animals such as tigers, monkeys, parrots and others species -- has faced troubles since the September 2005 shooting deaths of three escaped chimpanzees on zoo grounds.
The shooting was being investigated by the USDA. A fourth chimpanzee that briefly escaped, but returned to its enclosure before the shootings began was taken in by a wild animal safari in Missouri.
The zoo, which now has no operating revenue, has been using donations from its Board of Directors and others to feed and house the animals. But with little chance of getting its license back, Schlueter has been trying to find them new homes.
He said some of the animals, such as the camel, can be sold without an operating license. But it's easier to find homes for the less-desirable animals, like the Bengal tigers, if they keep the others around.
Schlueter said there is a place that will take tigers, but it charges $10,000 for each one. The zoo has five.
"We're kind of on our own," he said. "There's no place to go with the tigers unless you want to pay a big fee. The USDA won't come and do anything with them. They said they had no mechanism to come and get the animals."
Schlueter said he and several members of the zoo board will not consider an offer from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to help find homes for the animals. He said they are fundamentally against some of PETA's positions.
PETA has accused the zoo in the past of being a chronic violator of the Animal Welfare Act, but Schlueter has said no animals there have ever been neglected or mistreated.
Volunteer director Ken "Junior" Schlueter said he and the Board of Directors have realized that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will not be issuing another operating license for Zoo Nebraska.
The USDA is in charge of licensing and inspecting zoos.
Without a license, Schlueter said, the zoo can't sell its exotic animals or even ship them to a new home.
"The USDA has us in a spot that we cannot do anything," he said.
The seven-acre zoo -- which houses a number of exotic animals such as tigers, monkeys, parrots and others species -- has faced troubles since the September 2005 shooting deaths of three escaped chimpanzees on zoo grounds.
The shooting was being investigated by the USDA. A fourth chimpanzee that briefly escaped, but returned to its enclosure before the shootings began was taken in by a wild animal safari in Missouri.
The zoo, which now has no operating revenue, has been using donations from its Board of Directors and others to feed and house the animals. But with little chance of getting its license back, Schlueter has been trying to find them new homes.
He said some of the animals, such as the camel, can be sold without an operating license. But it's easier to find homes for the less-desirable animals, like the Bengal tigers, if they keep the others around.
Schlueter said there is a place that will take tigers, but it charges $10,000 for each one. The zoo has five.
"We're kind of on our own," he said. "There's no place to go with the tigers unless you want to pay a big fee. The USDA won't come and do anything with them. They said they had no mechanism to come and get the animals."
Schlueter said he and several members of the zoo board will not consider an offer from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to help find homes for the animals. He said they are fundamentally against some of PETA's positions.
PETA has accused the zoo in the past of being a chronic violator of the Animal Welfare Act, but Schlueter has said no animals there have ever been neglected or mistreated.
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