BELMONT — The animals of Zoo’Opolis Exotic Petting World are already on the move to Belmont and the business may soon be able to follow.
On Wednesday, June 5, the Brown County Commissioners will have the final say on whether or not the zoo’s new home can be in Belmont.
The Brown County Area Plan Commission voted unanimously on May 28 to pass a positive recommendation to the county commissioners. The commissioners’ job will be to determine whether or not the land along State Road 46 West is appropriate to be rezoned from residential to general business.
Kathleen Bowen’s family is buying about 17 acres along State Road 46 West from Ron and Connie Weddle. She has been planning to move her home and business from Bartholomew County to the Belmont property.
Bowen has been putting up fencing at the Belmont property and has been living there for several weeks. Some of the animals have been making trips back and forth with her while Zoo’Opolis continues to operate in Bartholomew County.
There is nothing in Brown County’s zoning laws that prevent a person from having multiple or exotic animals on their property, said Planning Director Chris Ritzmann. At issue is whether or not Bowen could run her business on the Belmont land, which is currently zoned residential. Bowen is seeking to change about 5 acres of it to general business zoning.
The meeting room was filled to capacity May 28 to hear the rezoning petition. It had been tabled from the April meeting so that APC members could gather more information before they voted.
In that time, two members stepped off the board — President Dave Harden and member Russ Herndon — and two new members joined it — Ric Fox, who was sitting in for Harden, and Kara Hammes, the county’s new extension educator. The extension educator slot on the board had been vacant for several months.
Each member of the APC visited Zoo’Opolis in Bartholomew County, in Belmont or both, and about half of those were unannounced visits, Bowen said.
APC members said they had no concerns about how the animals were being cared for; several said they were “impressed” by the knowledge the staff displayed, the education they were providing to guests and the cleanliness of the facility.
An equal number of people spoke at this hearing for and against Bowen’s request. Between the April and May meetings, the APC received three letters from the public against allowing Zoo’Opolis to move here and five in favor of it.
The board tried to hold comments at this meeting to those that were just about the appropriateness of changing the zoning and not about the business itself, but the two topics often crossed.
Five neighbors to the Belmont property spoke at the May 28 meeting and four of them expressed concerns. Those included animals getting loose, animal noises and smells and what the changes would do to property values and quality of life.
One next-door neighbor, Kim Riggen, said her son has autism and is sensitive to sound, and she’s concerned that he’s going to have to wear his headset even indoors because of the “howling and the barking.”
“I love zoos, don’t get me wrong. But I didn’t move in next to one because my son couldn’t handle that,” Riggen said.
Hammes and Ritzmann said that the animals are there lawfully now, and even if the APC did choose to vote down the zoning request, they would be able to stay.
One neighbor, Brian Harrison, said he had some of the same concerns when he heard a zoo would be going in right next door to him, but now that some animals have started moving in, he doesn’t have “any concerns whatsoever.”
He said it’s a good education opportunity for his children, it’s a good place for the animals compared to where they have been living in Bartholomew County, and it’s a good addition to Brown County in general. Where he works in Indianapolis, “all of them know what Zoo’Opolis is,” he said.
Cathy Eagan said she had spent two weeks preparing an approximately 15-page packet of information for the board regarding exotic petting zoos and she wanted to know if board members had received and reviewed it. Acting board President Carol Bowden said she hadn’t received it and the rest of the board didn’t answer the question.
Later, Ritzmann said that a county commissioner had given packets to some board members but not all of them, and the zoning office attempted to get it to all members when they learned what had happened.
The packet cites concerns about exotic animals causing disease and injury to people; a lack of ordinances to provide local oversight about how the zoo would operate here; and concerns about the welfare of the animals at Zoo’Opolis, where the tag line is “where the animals play with you.”
Jacob Moore, an attorney who has been working with Bowen, said that Bowen’s treatment of the animals is governed by the United States Department of Agriculture and her business will undergo multiple inspections each year. “I don’t think we should have folks nipping a business in the bud before it even has a chance to get started,” he said, adding that people can decide “with their wallets” whether or not they want to support it.
Bowen told the audience, her voice shaking at times, that she wants to get along with her neighbors. “I happen to love animals,” she said. “There’s no crime in loving animals.”
She guessed that on an average week, she puts in more than 100 hours of work taking care of them. Because she runs a business that welcomes an average of 12,000 guests a year, she has thousands of people “judging” her, she said.
“Just like everyone in this room, they want to see them taken care of to the standard they think the animals should be taken care of,” she said.
She again denied a report from last month that her wolf hybrid bit a child and her grandmother; she described the child’s injury as a “minor scratch” and shared statistics of other recreational activities that also have resulted in injury.
“Zoo’Opolis cannot be risk free. It’s absolutely impossible,” she said. “There is nothing in this world that is risk-free, even breathing (because of air quality).”
Two speakers suggested that the board consider granting this business a special exception instead of changing the zoning to general business, or putting restrictions on the zoning that wouldn’t allow it to house a completely different type of business if the land changed hands.
General business zoning allows a long list of businesses, such as housing, light industry, gas stations, several types of commercial businesses, nightclubs and taverns, theaters, hotels, mortuaries, billboards and livestock sale barns.
Board member Debbie Bartes noted that since this land is along state highway and its neighbors include three other businesses — a motel, a plant nursery and a car sales lot — it would make sense to zone it for general business. The motel’s zoning did include commitments to only allow certain land uses on that site, Ritzmann said.
Late last week, Bowen said she’s excited about getting all the animals onto the new property where they’ll have more space, plenty of grass and dandelions, and new enclosures. She understood that the APC’s decision wasn’t final, but she’s hoping that if all goes well, she can have a grand reopening in Brown County in mid-summer.
“I think that it’s a no-brainer. There are plenty of horse stables and things like that in Brown County. I don’t know how you can get more ‘nature’ than learning about a raccoon or a fox up-close,” she said.
The county commissioners will make the final decision on the zoning Wednesday morning, June 5. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the County Office Building in Nashville.
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In mid-January, Zoo’Opolis owner Kathleen Bowen was offering two types of animals on the website exoticanimalsforsale.net: Three leopard bengal house cats and a zebra. Those posts raised some questions after she had told the public that one of her goals at Zoo’Opolis was to educate people about why they might not want to own exotic pets.
Bowen said she started breeding rabbits before she opened her zoo because she knew people would want to handle baby animals, but she didn’t want to produce babies if she would be “adding to a population of animals nobody wants.” When she was able to find buyers for her baby rabbits, she started growing her zoo.
She said the price of her exotic animals — $4,500 for the zebra and $1,500 to $2,000 for the cats — is just one hurdle that potential buyers have to clear. “It screens people. You’re paying something big here, so you can afford to take care of the animal.”
That money helps her improve other animals’ habitats and run the zoo, she said. Many petting zoos can’t survive on their admission fees alone, she said.
Bowen said she encourages potential buyers to come visit Zoo’Opolis first and interact with the animals before buying any of them.
Most of her sales are of smaller animals such as rabbits, birds and guinea pigs, and they’re being bought for children, she said. More than once, the children have shown during those visits that they’re not really interested in the animal the parents were going to buy, so they don’t buy it, she said. They also learn about the work required to take care of that animal, and that can dissuade buyers.
She said her animals are unlike the ones sold at pet stores because they’ve frequently been handled by people and they’re more likely to make a successful transition into a family.
“If there comes a time that they aren’t selling well, then, back off; I’m not breeding for awhile,” she said.
The zebra, Nikko, has since been taken off the market because Bowen said she learned more about his likes and dislikes, and because the opportunity to move him to the property in Belmont became available. He would fight her using a halter to lead him to different habitats at the Bartholomew County Zoo’Opolis location, which she had to do to get him under shelter, she said. His habitat in Belmont is being built differently.
She said she had received calls from people inquiring about buying him and using him like a horse, and she advised those buyers that a zebra wasn’t what they wanted.
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