Lengthy Island’s largest and most controversial zoo is closing after native officers unanimously agreed to strip its funding and ship its allegedly horrifically abused animals to rescue services.
Brookhaven’s City Board handed its 2026 funds Thursday evening in a 7-0 vote — and the transfer cemented the shutdown of the Holtsville Ecology Heart’s zoo in a knockout blow to residents preventing to maintain the animal sanctuary open and funded by taxpayers.
“There must be much more by way of an funding and sources into even making an attempt to run this operation correctly,” defined City Supervisor Dan Panico at Thursday’s board assembly.
The board’s new $367 million funds worn out the greater than $2 million a yr it spent to cowl working prices on the animal protect, which was run by the city’s Freeway Division.
City officers argued the zoo fell outdoors the essential companies that native authorities must be offering.
The free-to-access zoo, which operated at a yearly loss, at the moment homes roughly 100 animals, a majority of which had been rescued or donated and might’t survive within the wild on their very own anymore.
They vary from bald eagles and bobcats to buffalo and farm livestock that at the moment are set to be relocated to varied sanctuaries that officers mentioned can deal with their wants.
However the zoo’s alleged situations have fueled bitter on-line assaults and board-meeting battles.
The accusations embrace letting a mountain lion drown, reducing staph infections out of Larry the rooster’s ft with out anesthesia, ignoring Honey the bear’s rotting tooth as she wasted away in a tiny enclosure whereas additionally spraying her with a high-powered hose, and failing to deal with Nessy the Peking duck’s lead poisoning, in keeping with sources aware of the matter.
The top caretaker of the middle, Kristin Layer, beforehand accused Panico and different “Crookhaven” officers of closing the zoo over “politics” and with the intention to reallocate funds to present themselves a increase.
“The REAL REASON for the ‘closure’ is due to ‘funds cuts’ YET our city [leaders] gave themselves over $30,000 raises this yr INCLUDING [Town Supervisor] Dan Panico,” Layer mentioned in an Instagram rant in September.
The 2026 funds boosts the native elected representatives’ salaries by roughly $30,000 complete — or raises of about $3,000 to $4,000 per official.
However Panico and different city officers have flatly denied Layer’s claims of any salary-bump trade-off, saying the abuse allegations involving the zoo, mixed with its hovering prices, restricted employees and decades-old infrastructure, made it inconceivable to justify preserving the operation working.
Jennifer Ramos, who lives close to the zoo, mentioned she was “devastated” by the power’s closing and doesn’t thoughts her tax {dollars} being spent on the sanctuary.
“It’s very unhappy, I take my grandkids right here the entire time, they usually adore it,” she mentioned.
“But when they’re mistreating the animals, they have to go,” Ramos mentioned. “The entire level of that place is to handle animals that may’t handle themselves.”
