Adding to a season that started with the injury and killing of some small animals at Happy Rolphs, this past Tuesday visitors arrived to find most of the farm animals missing from their pens.
Shocked visitors were concerned that for the second time this year another cruel act had been committed against the animals.
It turns out however that the animals were taken away by the farmer who owns them but the reasons why are curious non the less.
For the last ten years, local turkey farmer Paul Vanderzaden has worked with the City of St. Catharines to provide various farm animals including cows, donkeys, sheep and goats to its Happy Rolph’s Petting Zoo. In fact, just about every single animal there belongs to Vanderzaden.
This agreement seems to have worked out very well for the past decade however after the recent break in and killing of several small animals at the zoo, several changes made have “forced” Mr. Vanderzaden’s hand into taking his animals back to the farm.
In a radio interview by local am station 610 CKTB, Paul said that a city employee who had been a caretaker at Happy Rolph’s for about the last 8 years, a man who he trusted and knew cared about his animals, was no longer assigned to the park.In fact the city employee had been re-assigned to another position shortly after the break in at the park.
It isn’t clear why the employee was re-assigned but Vanderzaden said in an interview with the St. Catharines Standard that while city staff were trying to keep the break in and killings quiet, the employee was the one who contacted him to let him know what had happened. Shortly after that he was moved.
It was after that time that Vanderzaden had requested that the employee be given back his old job or risk losing the animals. He went on to explain that it wasn’t out of any bad feelings to make the decision but out of responsibility to his animals. Mr Vanderzaden went on to say that the city employee whom he worked with over the years went above and beyond his duties and had shown a true caring for the farmer’s animals.
Now under the care of a different city official, he doesn’t feel that the animals we’re getting the same kind of attention as before so the decision was made to bring his animals back home.
According to Mr. Vanderzaden the city has had almost two months to resolve this issue but as of the time that he came to retrieve his livestock, Happy Rolph’s city contact had not re-assigned the former employee to the zoo nor had they made any arrangements to bring in animals from other farmers.
So Happy Rolph’s petting zoo is now standing empty except for a few rabbits and chickens until further notice. No one is quite sure how this story is going to be resolved but it does take the community by surprise.
Since everyone had heard of the break in and killings of animals on June 1st there had been a community drive to support better security at the location and even some fund raising events however with the light of these new circumstances it is unsure what will happen in the future.
UPDATE: The City has made a deal with a new farmer to supply animals to Happy Rolphs. Visit the Happy Rolph's gets animals back Page for more.
What can be done to resolve the Happy Rolph's animal problem?
How can we get animals back to Happy Rolph's? Should the Farmer just "Trust" the new guy in charge? Should the city look elsewhere for more animals? Or should the city bring back the original caretaker for the park?
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There must be more to it than what we are being told
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Several questions need to be answered in order to give an educated response. Firstly why was the caretaker re-assigned? Was he in some way responsible ...
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This agreement seems to have worked out very well for the past decade however after the recent break in and killing of several small animals at the zoo, several changes made have “forced” Mr. Vanderzaden’s hand into taking his animals back to the farm.
According to Mr. Vanderzaden the city has had almost two months to resolve this issue but as of the time that he came to retrieve his livestock, Happy Rolph’s city contact had not re-assigned the former employee to the zoo nor had they made any arrangements to bring in animals from other farmers.