Brown County Area Plan Commission members are going to do more thinking before deciding whether or not to rezone land so that an exotic petting zoo can move there.

The commission heard more than a dozen comments from the audience April 23 regarding plans for Zoo’Opolis to move from western Bartholomew County to Belmont in western Brown County.

After commission members made three different motions, which either died for a lack of a second or were voted down, they decided to table a decision until the May 28 meeting.

Business owner Kathleen Bowen is buying land on contract next to Hickory Shades Motel along State Road 46 West. It’s currently zoned residential; she needs general business zoning to be able to move her petting zoo of approximately 100 animals there.

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Most of the animals are small enough to fit in a guest’s hand or arms, and they live indoors. A few, such as a zebra, miniature donkey and alpacas, would spend time outside.

Since 2015, Bowen has been running the petting zoo out of her rural Bartholomew County home. At the State Road 46 West property, she plans to live in the home that’s already there and to build other structures to house the animals.

The owner of Hickory Shades Motel, Andy Szakaly, said he had no objection to changing the zoning of the land beside his building to business use.

Besides Bowen’s consulting attorney, Jacob Moore, and her architect, Mark Daugherty, the president of the Brown County Redevelopment Commission, Jim Kemp, also spoke in favor of rezoning. Kemp said that the the business was “a slam-dunk for Brown County” and that it would fit into the tourism-based economy.

Other speakers had concerns about either the zoning change in general or about this specific business.

The APC usually only limits conversation at public hearings to comments about zoning itself. When speakers began to veer off topic to making comments about the business, commission members redirected them to only comment on the zoning. Some of them continued their comments anyway.

“If here is not where we talk about that, where?” asked Sandi Alldredge.

Harden suggested talking to the county commissioners, who will have the final say.

New commission member Randy Jones said he didn’t agree with the premise of limiting conversation to land use only, and he thought they needed to hear from people so they could make an intelligent decision on the zoning. Harden then opened up the hearing to all comments.

‘Fear for the safety’

One of the speakers was Brown Countian Annette Sebastian, who reported to Bartholomew County officials that her 9-month-old granddaughter was injured by a timber wolf at Zoo’Opolis on Easter weekend. She gave photos to the commission showing marks on the child’s face and the top of her head.

“Its mouth was on the baby,” she explained out in the hallway after the meeting.

Lucas Huff, who was visiting the facility with family, said in an emailed statement to The Democrat that the wolf hybrid was in the basement of the house and that guests were being allowed to freely interact with it.

“Toward the end of our visit, my 9-month-old niece was attacked by this animal. The child’s grandmother had sat her down near it for a photo opportunity. No member of the staff present made any objections,” he wrote.

Huff said the attack ended quickly with Sebastian grabbing the animal and removing its jaws from the baby’s head. Sebastian said that as she pushed the wolf hybrid away, it bit her also.

When Huff said the family needed to call the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, Huff said they were confronted by a woman who said she was the business owner, and who said the child was fine and had no open wounds. Although the family was initially blocked from leaving the basement area, Huff said, members of the staff came out and returned the entry fee to the family.

The animal was to be quarantined for 10 days, The Republic newspaper reported.

Huff said the baby is taking antibiotics as a precaution, as the skin on her head was broken, Huff said.

“This truly could have been a much different, much more tragic situation, and I fear for the safety of the children of Brown County is this business is allowed to operate unchecked,” he wrote.

Bowen disputed the family’s account of the incident. She was not in the room at Zoo’Opolis when it occurred.

“From my perspective, there was no bite,” she said during the zoning meeting. “The wolf is so powerful that if it had wanted to bite, there would be a puncture wound, a laceration or blood, and there was none of the three.”

Cathi Eagan, a longtime volunteer in animal rescue, asserted that exotic animals are a public safety issue. She questioned whether local Animal Control officers were willing and able to carry out all 31 pages of state laws regarding wild and exotic animals.

Bowen told the commission that her animals would fall under the responsibility of the Department of Natural Resources and then the United States Department of Agriculture, which has strict governance over zoos, including hers.

As far as animals getting loose, she said one of the reasons she wants to move to this property is that there aren’t a lot of trees that can drop limbs on fences and damage them, and every other animal besides the ones outside is in a “double fence,” so even if they got out of their enclosure, they’d still have to make their way out of a building. “Those concerns are not really likely, not very feasible,” she said.

Safety concerns also were raised in Bartholomew County. In January, Columbus officials notified Zoo’Opolis Exotic Petting World that the city would not grant a yearlong waiver to bring animals into the city, including a peach striped skunk, a baby kinkajou and a wolf hybrid.

Although the waiver was not granted, the Columbus Board of Works allowed a variance with a provision that an animal care officer be present during an event at CSA Fodrea Elementary School. Before any future events, the city’s Animal Care Commission and staff were to go to the zoo to make sure that any exotic animals the organization planned to bring into the city are safe, The Republic newspaper reported.

Other concerns

Two neighbors of the Belmont property, Clyce Hobbs and Marc Kirkham, asked if the zoning change could be reversed if Zoo’Opolis ever ceased to be there. Commission members said the zoning stays with the property even if it changes hands, but that the county commissioners could put restrictions on it if they wished.

Hobbs, who grew up on a farm, said he wasn’t thrilled about living next to a zoo, but he believes that “any property owner should be able to do anything they want to with their property as long as it doesn’t infringe on their neighbors.” That said, however, he was concerned about odors from animals, and that’s not something he believed Bowen could control even if she did clean pens twice a day.

Bowen said she lives in a house with many of the animals now and she is “praised on a regular basis” by her guests for the lack of odor.

She told the commission that she had contacted a local trash hauler about picking up animal waste weekly; it would be kept in a garbage can. “We’re not talking a ton of waste,” she said.

Three other speakers associated with the Brown County Humane Society brought up other concerns, including E.coli outbreaks at other petting zoos; whether or not it was appropriate to have animals in captivity for people to see; and how much education about wild animals as pets really goes on at Zoo’Opolis. They were not speaking on behalf of the humane society.

Bowen said education is a focus at Zoo’Opolis, and if she hears the words “I’ve always wanted” from a guest, that’s her cue to explain why they might want to think twice.

She’s said that a veterinarian sets out a care plan for each animal and that she’s required to take stool samples from her animals monthly for disease testing.

The plan commission had the options of sending a positive recommendation, a negative recommendation or no recommendation at all to the county commissioners, who will have the final say on the zoning change.

Member Deborah Bartes initially made a motion to approve it; it died for lack of a second.

Member Carol Bowden then moved to make no recommendation at all, but their attorney, David Schilling, told them that the county commissioners were relying on them for guidance. That motion was voted down.

Bartes then tried her positive recommendation again; it was voted down 4-2 with Bartes and Bowden for it.

Member Jane Gore moved to table it for further review; that passed unanimously.

Two commission members said they hadn’t been to the current Zoo’Opolis and they planned to visit before next month’s meeting.