Roos-N-More has decided not to ask the county to extend its use permit. That could mean a final end to the once popular zoo where you could get an up close encounter with many of the animals.
At a meeting this week, county leaders heard troubling new details from several former employees.
"I don't think anything is really going to change with Roos-N-More Zoo," Rich Hogan, a former volunteer and board member, told Clark County Commissioners.
"The animal acquisitions and additional animal acquisitions continued to occur at an alarming rate. Of course the more animals you acquire, the less attention you have to give to the existing animals."
Gina Brown was a fundraiser for the zoo.
"The money that I was raising for the animals, was not getting to the animals. It was getting used for private use and other things."
She told commissioners about more than 30 animals that died in a little over 2 years.
Former employees said they were told to cover up animal deaths.
"There were multiple times when I had been witness to an animal passing away and we were asked to put on paper that that animal did not pass away," says Casey Fox, a former employee who says she lived on the property. "It was merely transferred to another facility, especially during the time Roos-N-More was not allowed to accommodate any new animals at the facility. We were asked to put them down as transferred instead so that another animal could be brought in."
And they say conditions were getting worse for the animals as Roos-N-More battled the county over zoning problems.
But one volunteer and current board member says things were getting better.
"The animal numbers are getting smaller," Diane Parsons told the commissioners. "The enclosures, the animals are in the proper enclosures according to the ZAA. We had a USDA report or inspection about a week ago and they found three things that were fixed almost immediately."
We reached out to Roos-N-More for a statement but they haven't returned our call. In a letter to the county Roos-N-More said they want to submit a new use permit application.
Roos-N-More had issues in the past and was closed for a time before reopening last summer.
Roos-N-More is hosting a final event on Dec. 17 and all off-site private functions will be honored until Dec. 31, according to their Facebook page.
They have until Jan. 31 to relocate all of their approximately 150 animals and tell the county where they're all going.
