EDITORIAL: County rightly reaches deal with lion sanctuary
Give Clark County officials credit for learning from their mistakes. Shutting down a beloved animal sanctuary over red tape serves no good purpose.
On Wednesday, the Clark County Commission declined to revoke the operating permit for the Lion Habitat Ranch near Henderson, so that the facility can negotiate a plan with regulators that allows it to remain open.
“In principle, I think we’ve come to a compromise,” Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said at the meeting. Commissioners will consider the matter again March 18 after more talks.
Recall that a little more than one year ago, trucks full of inspectors from the Southern Nevada Health District and Clark County’s building and code enforcement divisions swooped upon the rustic Roos-N-More zoo in Moapa like a SWAT team and closed it. The nonprofit zoo, which houses kangaroos, camels, llamas and other nonpredators, was not abusing animals or letting them run wild. No, Roos-N-More was guilty of operating for years with portable toilets instead of a commercial septic system with flush toilets. The county’s heavy-handedness was completely unnecessary. An outpouring of support from an angry community spared the zoo from ruin.
The issue with the Lion Habitat Ranch is even less concerning. As reported by the Review-Journal’s Ben Botkin, the ranch’s permit allows 40 animals, but it has grown to house 46 cats as well as a giraffe, emus and ostriches. The nonprofit ranch, located on six acres east of Las Vegas Boulevard South near the M Resort, housed and transported lions for the MGM Grand’s Lion Habitat until the hotel removed the attraction in 2012. Keith Evans, president of the nonprofit foundation that operates the ranch, opened it to visitors after his relationship with the hotel ended. “Nobody’s ever escaped, nobody’s ever been injured,” he said.
Some of the lions that appeared at the MGM Grand still live at the ranch. Mr. Evans says tens of thousands of people visit the ranch each year.
The compromise that Mr. Evans and the county are close to reaching would require him to stop breeding and not replace animals that die, returning the facility’s population to the permitted standard by attrition. Mr. Evans says about 15 of his lions are 20 years old and won’t survive much longer.
No one is suggesting Mr. Evans’ facility be free from regulation. Proper permitting is important for anyone who wants to house a few dozen predators near homes and businesses. But Mr. Evans’ violations clearly did not rise to a level that required harsh punishment or closure of his enterprise. Bravo to the county for working it out.
