Looking to Start a Small Zoo

Shutterfox

Shutterfox

Member


Hello there! My name is Dana and myself and my husband are (surprise, surprise) looking to start building a small exotic animal menagerie, with the hopes to establish a roadside zoological attraction. Both my husband and I have lifelong experience working professionally with horses and have reasonable experience with the stereotypical farm animals.

My exotic experience has been, in the past, limited to personally owning hookbills (macaws, african greys, conures, and lorikeets), reptiles (snakes, iguanas, turtles, and tortoises) and a wide variety of "exotic pets" such as ferrets, guinea pigs, chinchillas, etc.

Throughout the past year, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work alongside "zoo exotics" at my job including coatimundis, Patagonian cavies, african crested porcupines, African Serval cats, white handed gibbons, zebras, Nilgai, zebu cattle, giant Aldabra tortoises, Scottish highlander cows, emus, lemurs, camels, and probably a few I've left out of this list.

I am located in Virginia, but we have every intention to move to a state with significantly more lenient exotic animal laws. We were looking into possibly West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Texas, or elsewhere.

We are both aware this will require quite a bit of time, money, and sanity to make this a reality, but we are willing to do whatever it takes to make our dreams come true! Our timeframe is very lenient, as we don't expect to have any sort of established attraction for 10-15 years. This will give us the time to acquire the necessary land in the right location, permits and licenses, construct our enclosures and habitats, build the appropriate buildings, and finally acquire the animals.

We would love to purchase an already established our out of business zoo and improve the facilities and continue expansion on our own, but I'm clueless as to where to look for such properties. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated!

I am looking to the ZooChat forum for some advice, and perhaps even meet with some current zoo owners as to how to make our goal a reality.

I really look forward to meeting all of you and hope we can gather some insight on the zoological industry though you members!

Take care and thanks in advance!

 

Thank you, Tigris, for your prompt response!

I will need to research further into the particular state we would be starting this operation, but I intend to apply for USDA licensing, an exhibitor's license, and the proper permits for the species of animals we intend to acquire. Of course, different states, counties, and townships have different laws and many require specific permits for particular species and enclosures.

Do you have any further information that I may be overlooking? I appreciate your input!
 

As I mentioned in my original post, I'm in Virginia. Northern VA to be more specific :)

Edited to reiterate that I do not have any intentions on having our future facility in the state of Virginia.
 
Can't give you any advise on licens because I don't know the ones you need in the USA , even so I wish you all the luck with your zoo !
With your questions about the care or other questions about animals you always can post them on Zoochat and I'm sure you will get your answers !
Keep us informed !
 


Thank you for your reply, vogelcommando! It's so encouraging to get so many responses so quickly regarding our lifelong endeavor!

My first concerns are on the planning aspect. Regardless of where we end up starting this zoological park, we need to have a basic idea of enclosure setup for a variety of animals, from small herbivores to ungulates to big cats!

So if any of you have any experience in constructing enclosures, or know of website links that would start us in the right direction, please feel free to share your knowledge and resources! My husband is quite experienced in construction, so we're confident he would be able to build our habitats, but we are certainly open to purchasing pre-made enclosures stand-alone or to expand. I'm sure the animal care related questions will pop up in the future.

We are subscribed to the monthly Animal Finders Guide and so far, I've soaked up a lot of information.

Thank you again to everyone who has contributed to this thread and I will keep you all posted as to how things progress!
 
Small zoos definitely pop up for sale in the U.S. if you keep your eyes peeled, I've seen several become available in Texas.

Here's one available right now for $275k

Of course, you've got to figure out getting your USDA Class C license first, plus a ton of insurance, look into any local permits/permissions/issues, etc etc

Best of luck!
 
If you plan on having any cats, you will find a fantastic resource in the Feline Conservation Federation. They are very willing to provide all kinds of practical information on legal requirements (which they have broken down by state) and enclosure design.
Welcome to the world of feline captive husbandry and conservation

You should also look into the Zoological Association of America (or ZAA). This is an alternative to the AZA that is easier for newcomers to break into and they also are willing I think to provide practical information.
Welcome to ZAA.org

As for location, you need to look for an area where there is no major zoo within easy driving distance. You should look to fill a need for the residents in addition to fulfilling your own dreams. The state of Nevada desperately needs something good (the horrendous and small zoo in Las Vegas was just shut down in case you did not notice).
 

I really appreciate all of your helpful responses. We are looking into a property in Ritchie County of West Virginia currently. The closest popular zoo is the Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo (about 3.5 hours north), which concerns us a bit as it is considered "West Virginia's Zoo". It is also more accessible to northern VA, MD, and southern PA which seems like an ideal location.

We are still torn between the idea of buying a "fixer-upper" zoo and renovating, or building one from scratch on our own land. There are obviously positives and negatives to either option. Any thoughts on this? What's important is that we are in a location that needs a zoological attraction, so we don't get run out of business.
 

I appreciate your concern and agree that haphazard efforts are made so folks can obtain some sort of status simple. This is not out situation, I assure you. In fact, I've never even seen the Matt Damon film, and heard it wasn't very good. My husband and I have professionally worked with horses and cattle for several years. Over the last couple years, I have been an employed zookeeper myself, so I have a general idea on how things are run, and the necessities to operate a zoological park.

Ultimately, this is to live my dream and share my facility with guests. In order to financially contribute to the upkeep of such animals, I will be charging an admission fee. Thus, it's considered an exhibition zoo.
 
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