Ratepayer funding has been ruled out for the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary - for now.
Photo / Supplied
Ratepayer funding has been ruled out for the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary - for now.
Photo / Supplied
If ratepayers want the Whangārei District Council to help the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary stay afloat, they need to make written submissions through one of the council’s key planning documents.
Mayor Vince Cocurullo made the comments when asked if WDC would come to the party should the public wish that tohappen after confirmation Big Cats Limited, the company that runs Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary, has been put into involuntary liquidation.
The park is temporarily closed.
It’s the second time the park has gone into liquidation. The first was in 2011 when it was called Zion Wildlife Gardens and was under different management.
Back then, WDC and the Northland Regional Council indicated a willingness to help the park if they were formally approached. At the same time, park receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) received an offer from an unnamed interested party to buy the park and assets, but there was a dispute over the ownership of the animals.
Yesterday, Cocurullo said WDC’s priority was to fix infrastructure damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle rather than focus on a company the council had not been involved with from the start.
“But we do have the Annual Plan coming up this year and if it’s the desire of the community for the council to help the park, then they need to put that in writing. We also have the Long-Term Plan coming up next year.
“I am a cat lover but at the same time, there has to be a degree of awareness that the council cannot keep the park going. The council’s focus right now is to get its infrastructure back up and running.”
Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo said WDC's priority at the moment was fixing damaged infrastructure rather than helping the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary.
Photo / Susan Botting
Cocurullo said he sympathised with the situation the park owners and operators were in at present, given Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary’s importance to Northland as a tourist destination.
“There are unfortunately consequences for organisations like the lion park that goes into liquidation. One only has to look at the refinery’s closure and the jobs that were lost so it’s not uncommon for things like that to happen.”
Cocurullo said people needed to understand the park was unlike other entities such as the Whangarei Quarry Gardens and the Hundertwasser Art Centre which have had WDC involvement from the beginning.
A Givealittle page set up on Tuesday evening by Whangārei businessman Chris Thomas to save the big cats had raised $2110 by 2.30pm yesterday.
He said the director of Big Cats Janette Vallance has dedicated her life to the preservation of these animals.
“I am trying to do my bit to help her out really. These animals are pretty much over if nothing happens,” he said.
Vallance said yesterday the animals were fed and well looked after by staff.
Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary, on Gray Rd in Kamo, was once run by Craig Busch, famously known as The Lion Man, and his mother Patricia Busch under the name Zion Wildlife Gardens.
The pair became embroiled in legal action against each other after the park was handed over to Patricia Busch in 2006, and Craig was sacked two years later.
