County Skeptical Of Closure Plan To Find Homes For Zoo Animals

Walk in the Wild’s manager says she’ll find homes for all its animals if the zoo must close, as now appears likely.

“I just can’t picture any animals dying,” said Frances Drake, who recently wrote a plan that calls for selling exotic animals to raise money so other species could be shipped to new owners.

County officials are skeptical the plan will work.

Some animals, like elk, are difficult to move, animal control Director Marianne Sinclair wrote in a memo to county commissioners. Some other animals would be tough to place, either because they are too common or are disabled, she said.

“One of the bears has a crippled paw, what other zoo would want it?” Sinclair wrote. “A roadside zoo may be worse than death for some animals.”

Drake is counting on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to help find homes for some species. County attorney Jim Emacio told commissioners in a memo that assumption may not prove true, based on a conversation with Bruce Smith, the agency’s regional director.

“The Department of Wildlife will not accept the opossum” or the bobcat, Emacio wrote. “The nine elk and mule deer, if turned over to the (department), will be euthanized.”

State law forbids private ownership of elk, deer and other game animals.

Drake said Wednesday that she and other zoo officials hope to keep Walk in the Wild in business by moving it to another site. But they don’t have the land or money for the move.

If the zoo must close, Drake wrote in her plan that the process probably would take 90 days.

She counts on raising $15,000 during the zoo’s final weekend to help offset the cost of shutting down.