Donations waning: Effort to save Crossett zoo fails

After 70 years in business, the Crossland Zoo in Crossett, Arkansas, is closing its doors, this time, possibly for good.

The Community Alliance for Resource Development took control of the zoo back in September 2015, after the Crossett City Council tried to close the zoo because of budget problems.

The group sent KNOE a release Friday, which says they are closing up shop at the zoo because donations are waning and they ran into problems getting permits for the animals.

Most of the animals have already been relocated to Monroe's Zoo. The Director of Monroe’s zoo says those animals are in a standard quarantine period before being placed in public exhibits.

The Crossett zoo is expected to close fully by the end of November.

Statement on closing of Crossett, Ark. Zoo:

It is with great sorrow that Community Alliance for Resource Development, also known as CARD, is announcing the closing of Crossland Zoo. If everything goes as planned, the zoo will be officially closed by the end of November. Arrangements for the animals have already been made. The animals owned by CARD have all found a good home at the zoo in Monroe, Louisiana, except for “Nilla” the bear. She will be going to Springfield, Missouri to a private zoo sponsored by Bass Pro Shops. The animals not owned by CARD will be picked up by their owner, Jason Clay.

In September of 2015, when the Crossett City Council decided to close the zoo due to budget constraints, CARD asked for the opportunity to try and keep it open, The Council agreed and thus began CARD’s journey of restoring and maintaining Crossland Zoo, which had been in existence in the Crossett community for 70 years. Many factors contributed to the decision to close the zoo.

For the past 14-months CARD has depended solely on donations and volunteer help to operate and maintain the zoo. The volunteer base became greatly reduced which required CARD to have to hire employees (two feeders, two grounds keepers, and one maintenance person). In the beginning, the donations which were received regularly have now almost completely stopped and CARD’s fundraising attempts produced less revenue than hoped for.

All of this combined with issues obtaining animal permits, dealt the final blow. The average per month expenses to operate the zoo is $12,000-$14,000 (see attached report). This does not include the much needed repairs of some of the animal enclosures and existing buildings. Nor does it include adding new exhibits or expanding in any way. CARD has explored every available avenue in regards to obtaining funds to help operate the zoo, which have all resulted in dead ends.

CARD believed that grants could be obtained as one source of help for the expenses, but has since discovered there are no such grants available for zoo operations. The grants that are available would be for development of community facilities and activities that could have possibly helped support the zoo by charging admissions.

If these types of grants were awarded, it would still take approximately 180 days to obtain them in addition to the time required to get a project up and running. This would be a great goal to aspire for, but CARD does not have the funds to support the zoo past this month.