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March 29, 2024 7:22 am
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Roos-N-More Zoo Throws In The Towel

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A young visitor gets up close and personal with a friendly lemur at the Roos N More zoo shortly after the facility opened in 2009.

After battling with the Clark County Commission and staff for more than eight years, the beloved Roos N More zoo in Moapa has finally decided to close its gates for good.

Last week zoo officials withdrew a request for an extension of time on its Use Permits with the County. This effectively closes the facility to the public. The zoo has been given until December 31 to end all operations with the public and until January 31, 2017 to find suitable new homes for its 150 exotic animals.

The decision was made prior to a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday, December 7. The zoo was on the agenda to request another six month extension. This time was needed to continue its ongoing efforts to bring the facility into full compliance with County code.

The zoo’s ongoing saga extends back to January of 2014 when the facility was closed after an unannounced inspection by officials from several county departments uncovered a long list of code violations. Since that time, the zoo had struggled to raise the necessary funds to meet the requirements.

The Commissioners nearly closed the facility again in August of 2015 because progress on the requirements was not proceeding quickly enough. But an outcry from the Las Vegas public in strong support of the zoo caused the Commissioners to reconsider their decision and allow zoo officials another chance to present their case. The zoo was ultimately given a list of no less than 34 conditions it was required to meet in order to remain open.

After that, a series of major fundraisers took place. The regional public rallied and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help keep the zoo open. Nearly $300,000 was raised in a single fundraising event held at Zappos in Las Vegas in 2014.

Zoo founders Jay and Valerie Holt estimate that more than $600,000 has been spent on renovations to the facility to try to bring it into compliance. These included a new commercial-grade restroom facility, a commercial septic system, a designated parking area providing nearly 100 spaces, full ADA compliance, major updates to a residence on the property to bring it to commercial grade, and more.
Zoo officials had appeared ready to seek the extension right up until last Wednesday’s Commission meeting. Roos N More board members had appeared before the Moapa Town Advisory Board (MTAB) just the week prior to seek the community’s approval. They had received a unanimous recommendation of approval from the MTAB.

But comments made by County staffers in that prior meeting had indicated that all was not well for the applicant at the county level.
“This is not how it is going to go at the Commission (next week),” Ridondo said at the Tuesday, November 29 meeting. “This board has always been very smiling and happy with this applicant. But this has been a long time coming and there are major concerns about this project.”

Despite these concerns, MTAB members had expressed continued support for the facility. “I’m not sure what good it does,, but from our perpective here in Moapa, we are completely okay with approving this request,” said MTAB Chairman Tim Watkins at the Moapa meeting.
No one from the zoo actually spoke at last week’s County Commission meeting. Thus there was no statement as to exactly why the decision had been made to withdraw the request.

But during the public hearing which followed on the item, it was apparent that the zoo would not have had the votes from Commissioners.
A handful of disaffected former zoo employees and volunteers addressed the board and expressed their concerns about the management of the facility. Most of these concerns centered around a perceived lack of appropriate care for the animals.

Rich Hogan, a former volunteer and board member, claimed that the zoo had acquired additional animals after it’s agreed-upon conditions had forbidden any new animals at the facility.
“The animal acquisitions continued to occur at an alarming rate,” Hogan told the Commissioners. “Of course, the more animals you acquire, the less attention you have to give to the existing animals.”
Hogan added that, as a board member, he had been frustrated with the “deplorable” conditions in which many of the animals were kept. He said that he had hoped to bring some change by serving on the board but had become frustrated and resigned his board seat.
“I don’t think that anything is really going to change with Roos N More,” he said. “Whether you extend the permit or not, the conditions of the animals is never going to improve.”

Gina Brown said that she had been a volunteer and a fundraiser for the zoo since 2010. She felt that funds raised were not being directed enough toward animal care. “The money that I was raising for the animals was not getting to the animals,” she said. “It was getting used for other things.”

One former employee said that she had been asked to cover up animal deaths at the zoo.
“There were multiple occasions when we were asked to lie about what happened to animals,” said Casey Fox, a former senior zookeeper who said she had lived on the property. ““There were times when I had been witness to an animal passing away and we were asked to put on paperwork that it did not pass away but was merely transferred to another facility.”
This then allowed for another animal to be brought in to replace the one that had died, Fox said.

But Dianne Parsons, an eight year volunteer and a current board member, said that the facility had gone through marked improvements and made important strides since these concerns were at issue.
“Things are changing,” Parsons said. “Numbers of animals are getting smaller. The enclosures for the animals are proper according to the ZAA (Zoological Association of America). We had a USDA inspection about a week ago and they found only three things that were fixed almost immediately.”
Parsons said that deaths of animals at zoos, while regrettable, are fairly common. The number of animal deaths occurring at Roos N More were not out of line with customary zoo fatality numbers, she said.

After the public hearing, Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick stated that her concerns had been growing about the zoo as time went by. She noted that county staff had been getting conflicting information about the zoo on a regular basis. And when documentation about animals had been requested from zoo officials, the requests were not fulfilled.

Kirkpatrick also expressed concerns that animals were being mishandled in order to bring funds to the zoo. “The animals are part of these events,” Kirkpatrick said. “For five dollars you can go in with a pot-bellied pig, for $25 you can go with an otter. Some animals are being asked to perform for half hour increments three to four times a day. I don’t believe that was the intent of what these animals are for.”
Kirkpatrick proposed that the commission view the item “without prejudice” meaning that time would be allowed for the zoo operators to close the facility down in an appropriate way.
“That way we make sure that the animals get to the proper venues and locations,” Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick added that she would be willing to view the withdrawal without prejudice provided three conditions were met. First that no further events take place at the zoo after 12/31/2016. Secondly, the zoo website must be taken down so that people could not arrange for zoo events through an online medium. The third requirement was that all relocation of animals must be done by 1/31/2017 and be done with full disclosure through proper documentation to county staff.
The motion passed by a unanimous vote of the commission.

After the meeting, Roos N More board member John Anderson of Las Vegas said that the outcome left the door open for zoo officials to return to the Commission with additional requests in the near future.
“The zoo’s board of directors is looking for a way to redefine what the zoo is and continue operations in some fashion for the community and the animals that we choose to keep,” Anderson said. “We still will need the support of the community to do that.”

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