Barnyard friends
Waterloo Park’s animal farm has evolved over the years
WATERLOO — For the past nine years, Bernice Height has kicked off her workday at 7 a.m., tending to the barnyard animals in Waterloo Park.
“I love working with the animals,” says Height, who grew up on a farm near Paisley and has spent her whole life working with and showing animals. “I’m going to be here for the rest of my life, for sure.”
On a mucky Friday morning, wearing large rubber boots, Height opens the gates into one of the enclosures to offer a treat to the donkeys, alpacas and miniature horses. Most of them run toward her — all except the alpacas who tend to be a little standoffish.
“Alpacas pretty much do their own thing,”
says Height.
But the others won’t turn down a good brush or a tasty treat, especially Rambo, an eight-year-old miniature horse.
“The boss is Rambo,” says Height. “He rules the roost but everybody gets along pretty well.”
Later in the morning, Height carries a peacock out from the barn onto the park pathway and is met by two gleeful sisters, who are visiting with their grandmother and great aunt.
“I really like the peacocks,” says Diana Pullen, 8, with a big smile on her face.
Seeing children engage with the animals is rewarding for Height.
“I love seeing little kids giggling and reacting to to the animals,” she says. “The turkey will run around (its enclosure) and talk to them and the kids will be laughing and gobbling back to him.”
There are five enclosures at the small farmstead for the animals that call the city-owned and operated Eby Farmstead — commonly known as the Waterloo Park zoo — their year-round home. There are two miniature horses, two donkeys, two alpacas, two llamas, peacocks, guinea fowl and chickens and turkeys. There also are two fallow deer that are nearing 20 years of age.
In the warmer months, the city brings in two Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, two pygmy goats and two sheep. Some of these summer additions are purchased at the Ontario Livestock Exchange in a special petting-zoo type of category, says Height.
The farmstead has gone through a number of changes since it was created in the 1960s. Most recently, the fencing on some of the enclosures had to be brought in a few feet to allow for Trans Canada Trail enhancements. The Ion light rail transit line also runs along one side of the farmstead.
There’s talk of improving the fencing and other amenities.
“It does need upgrades,” says Therese Linseman, parks manager with the City of Waterloo. “But right now with all the promenade construction project going on, it’s not going to happen until after that’s completed.”
The farmstead operates on a budget of up to $64,000 a year, which includes everything from food, regular vet care, repairs and equipment.
Anyone who remembers visiting the site in its early days will know it has changed dramatically from the wildlife zoo it once was.
“The zoo started out with deer and then it grew into having exotic animals like black bears and cougars and timber wolves,” says Karen VandenBrink, manager of museum and archival collections with the City of Waterloo Museum. It was gifted to the city’s parks board of management from the Waterloo Lions Club in the 1960s as a Canada centennial project.
In the decades that followed, the zoo encountered controversy. There were instances of vandalism, animals that escaped, and concerns raised about the conditions the wildlife were kept in. “That menagerie ... was replaced with far more domestic animals for the park’s centennial — the anniversary of the park in 1990,” says VandenBrink. Subsequently, the name was changed to Eby Farmstead. In 1890, the Eby family sold 75 acres of land to the city to create Waterloo Park.
Changes were made as “our whole public perceptions and changes in our attitudes in keeping exotic animals,” did, says VandenBrink.
Through the decades and the changes, the animals in Waterloo Park have always been a draw, whether for joggers, picnickers or school groups.
“It’s always been a very popular feature in the park,” says VandenBrink.
“When we hosted an exhibit on the park, which was a couple of years ago for its anniversary, that’s something that everybody remembers.”
‘‘ I love seeing little kids giggling and reacting to to the animals.
BERNICE HEIGHT