Nearing End Of The Walk Volunteers, Some Animals Remain As Plans For New Zoo Are Decided

Anymore, a walk at Walk in the Wild is just that.

Tall unmowed grass surrounds exhibits where brown bears stretch and play. Tiny trees sprout on walkways. Gates swing open on empty pens.

“This is what a zoo looks like when it’s dying,” says longtime volunteer Bob Burke.

There are still lions, tigers, snow leopards, elk, bison, a bobcat and brown bears at the zoo. But no patrons, no zoo director, no administrative staff. No newsletter, few donations and hardly any need to race to the phone.

Two zookeepers, an interim curator and a core of volunteers care for the animals, some with the same dedication they’ve shown for 20 years.

After everything, it’s almost peaceful.

“A zookeeper’s dream,” says curator Diane Versteeg.

“No people,” says keeper Donna Versteeg Cohen.

The sisters smile at one another, knowing the whole point of a zoo is to bring people and animals together. Losing this place is like losing a member of the family. Since their first contact with exotic animals during Expo ‘74, Joan Versteeg and her daughters, Donna, 37 and Diane, 38, have volunteered or worked at the zoo. They love animals.

Diane is working to find the remaining animals new homes, which may take until December.

Although animals like the flamingos and wallaroos have been returned to their owners, others are waiting for permits to travel, better weather and word about a proposed new zoo at the Silverwood Theme Park in North Idaho.

Few people realize how many animals remain. Donated meat - once common - is now like gold left at the door. The most recent donation was $72 from children who painted faces in their neighborhood to raise the funds.

With almost no money coming in, an anonymous board member has been loaning Walk in the Wild money to meet the $7,000 in monthly bills.

Despite the ongoing struggle, the zoo site is peaceful and in early summer, a beautiful place.

Donna and longtime keeper LeAnne Brady follow the same ritual they have for years: feeding, cleaning, doctoring and monitoring animals. Brady started her day last Wednesday folding antibiotics into meat for Sasha the snow leopard, whose paw was injured by her longtime companion, Yuri.

The women work out of their own vehicles and an old pickup that Skip Snyder and other volunteers routinely must fix. Snyder and his wife are among the core still working.

“It used to be my most favorite place in the world, now it’s the saddest,” says Carol Snyder. “The bears are still playing, the lemurs are still swinging. I can personally enjoy it, but the community has lost it.”

Snyder has volunteered weekly for 14 years. When people threw live rabbits and chicks over the fence in the weeks after Easter, she picked them up. When someone left a potbellied pig on a blanket along with a bag of food, she took it to a veterinarian and found it a new home within the day.

She and fellow volunteer Joan Versteeg do the zoo’s paperwork. Only security and the animal caretakers remain as paid help.

Brady, who bottle-fed Kasey the tiger and other big cats as cubs, knows she’ll be OK as long as her charges go to a good home.

“It’s been a tough year. I’ve been dealing with it. I try not to come to work every day and know I’m going to lose my animals. The day I do, I’ll be a basket case.”

Decades of experience and training will disperse along with the animals. Bob Burke may volunteer his expertise in African animals at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Others are looking at wildlife programs elsewhere in Idaho and Washington.

More than anything, Burke and others mourn the lost opportunity to educate this community about the natural world.

As Burke scratches Leonard the lion through a fence, an onlooker notes a reporter might make a complete meal.

Joan Versteeg, all too keenly aware of the $166 a month it takes just to feed Leonard, disagrees.

“Oh no,” she says. “It would be two meals at least.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHAT’S NEXT A decision is expected later this month on whether the Inland Northwest Zoological Society will proceed with the proposed Cedar Mountain Zoological Park on 90 acres at Silverwood Theme Park in North Idaho.