Small zoo in Bucks County closing

A 70-animal zoo in a Bucks County industrial park that attracted families and children's groups but was criticized by animal-protection activists is planning to shut its doors after Oct. 9.

"The recession was worse than we could have expected," Joe Fortunato, executive director of the Bucks County Zoo and Conservation Society in Warwick, said Friday. "This is an emotional time for us, but it's in the best interest of the zoo and the animals."

His priority "is placing the animals in accredited zoos and licensed facilities," Fortunato said in an interview from New York, where he said some of the zoo's pets, including Big Bertha, a 21-foot, 225-pound python, were being taped for a Friday night appearance with an animal expert on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Also providing the "wow" factor among the zoo's birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and arachnids are Kira, a four- to five-month-old Bengal tiger, and endangered lemurs from Madagascar, Fortunato said.

"It's time to regroup and come back in a year or so," said the former Falls Township police officer, who started with a traveling animal show in 2006 and opened his zoo in 2009. "We'll raise funding, find land, and reopen stronger and better."

The zoo "is one of the family-friendly attractions that visitors stay over for in Bucks County," said Michele Greco Falcone, spokeswoman for Visit Bucks County. "It gets school groups, families, locals, birthday parties, and Scouts."

The zoo has received $25,000 in grants from the county's tourism agency, Greco Falcone said.

But the zoo has its critics, namely Animal ACTivists of Philly, which has been campaigning for a year to close the facility.

The group's founder, Marianne Bessey, applauded the closing, calling the zoo "nothing more than a depository for the exotic pet trade, offering photo ops and parties." She said she was "extremely concerned about where the animals are going" and warned that they might wind up going to auctions, breeding businesses, or "a canned hunt."

Her group has criticized Fortunato's zoo for confining animals in cages and plastic boxes.

Fortunato said the zoo was inspected by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and accredited by the Feline Conservation Federation. Trainers work with the animals outside the cages, which meet or exceed state requirements, Fortunato said. Most workers are volunteers, including Delaware Valley College students, he said.

As for where he was placing the animals when his zoo closes, Fortunato said, "the zoos and facilities [that take the animals] would have to release that information."