Roos-N-More finds new homes for exotic animals, abandons plans for educational program

Most of the menagerie at the once-popular Roos-N-More animal attraction in Moapa has been shipped off to new homes in Texas and Utah.

Another batch of 20 or so is scheduled to depart on Thursday, bound for an exotic animal facility in Arizona.

The rest should be gone by month’s end, when Roos-N-More will go back to what it was in the beginning: a private, rural residence with a few unusual pets.

Board member John Anderson said the zoo has abandoned plans to continue as a scaled-down educational outreach program. Instead, the operation 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas is shutting down completely.

“We have a potential home for the rest of the animals,” he said.

Husband and wife veterinarians Jay and Valerie Holt opened the zoo at their home in Moapa in 2009 to show off their growing collection of exotic pets, including kangaroos, camels, llamas, monkeys, otters and other animals.

SHUT DOWN BY REGULATORS

They were shut down by Clark County regulators three years later, after an inspection revealed numerous paperwork problems and code violations.

In 2015, county officials gave the zoo provisional approval to reopen so long as the Holts brought the property up to code and met 34 other conditions, including limits on the days of operation, visitor volume and the number and type of animals at the facility.

After several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of work, the zoo opened its gates once again in July, this time with an 11-member board of directors to oversee its operation and finances.

But Anderson said Roos-N-More didn’t have enough time or money to complete the transition from a small, family-run attraction to a commercial business.

“You took the family out of the zoo. That’s what killed it,” he said.

A code requiring fire sprinklers inside two buildings that Roos-N-More hoped to use for public events proved to be the proverbial straw the broke the camel’s back. (Note: The zoo’s actual camels were unharmed. Anderson said the Holts plan to keep them.)

The sprinklers and the dedicated water line to supply them would have cost more than $200,000, Anderson said. “Financially, it was a big hurdle to overcome.”

Other, more troubling concerns surfaced during a Dec. 7 Clark County Zoning Commission hearing on the zoo’s permit to operate.

ACCOUNTS OF NEGLECT

Several former Roos-N-More employees and volunteers related stories of neglect, falsified records and attempts to cover up the deaths of some animals.

Anderson said any problems like that predated the formation of the zoo’s board of directors last spring. He declined to address the specific allegations except to say, “There are two sides to every story.”

But at least one former board member was among those arguing last month against efforts to keep the zoo going.

Rich Hoggan, chief financial officer for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told the commissioners that everything seemed great at Roos-N-More when he and his family started volunteering there. It wasn’t until he joined the new board that he got a look behind the scenes at conditions he described as “deplorable.”

“I don’t think anything’s really going to change ultimately with Roos-N-More zoo,” he told the commission. “Whether you extend the permit or not, the condition of the animals is never going to improve.”

In the end, there was nothing for the commissioners to approve. At the last minute, the zoo decided to withdraw its request for a permit extension and shut its doors for good. The attraction opened to the public one last time on Dec. 17.

Since then, the focus has been on finding new homes for the more than 150 mammals, birds and reptiles in Roos-N-More’s care, Anderson said.

The Holts are keeping some of their animals. Others are being adopted by zoo employees and volunteers. The vast majority are being sold or donated to other animal attractions and sanctuaries.

Anderson said the process has been an emotional one for the Holts and their loyal team of zoo workers.

“It’s been a long battle for them,” he said. “It’s still going with every shipment that’s gone out.”

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.