Zoo’s future in councillors’ hands
Natureland says it will close, and potentially euthanise some animals, if it doesn’t receive more council funding.
A letter from its trust was tabled at a Nelson City Council workshop on Thursday.
Signed by Natureland Wildlife Trust board chair Alan Hinton, the letter said the trust would not formally renew its contract from July, ‘‘at the contract price of $170,000 plus GST, as it would be facing insolvency’’.
Hinton outlined four options available to the council: either increase the funding to the originally-sought-for $248,000 per year, help fund the closure of the zoo, seek tenders for operating the zoo, or take over operation of the zoo from July this year.
‘‘It is anticipated that it would take at least one year to disperse the animal collection, based upon the time it took Franklin Zoo to do this for a similar number of animals,’’ Hinton said. ‘‘Some animals may need to be euthanised if they cannot be relocated.’’
Auckland’s Franklin Zoo rehomed all 430 of its animals after it was forced to close when a keeper was crushed to death by an elephant in 2012.
In last year’s Long Term Plan process, the trust submitted a request for an operating grant of $248,000 per year for 10 years, as well as a one-off $50,000 capital works grant.
This amount was supported by staff as ‘‘about right’’, but was hotly debated in the council chamber, before being amended to $248,000 in the 2018-2019 financial year, dropping to $170,000 each year over the next nine years. The capital works grant was unchanged.
Councillor Tim Skinner said at the workshop the letter was ‘‘bizarre’’, as previous communication from Natureland had suggested that things were going well for the organisation.
‘‘A short while ago it was going swimmingly, but now it’s saying that it’s going to have to close down and maybe euthanise animals.’’
Skinner was referring to a letter sent to councillors in January, outlining grants received and achievements made in 2018.
Since that letter was sent, the board of trustees had a budget review which indicated Natureland would operate at a loss under the new contract, and did not have cash reserves to fall back on.
The letter isn’t entirely without warning, however. Shortly after the reduced funding was approved, members of Project Janszoon and representatives from the Department of Conservation submitted to the council that without the full funding requested from the council, Natureland could be forced to close down.
DOC director of partnerships Martin Rodd said the director of Natureland, Meg Rutledge, had told him the $170,000 annual funding would lead to closing Natureland.
Councillor Mike Rutledge came into some grief when the decision was made, as he was accused of ‘‘harassing’’ councillors about the decision, including telling councillor Mel Courtney that by voting for the reduced funding he had ‘‘destroyed Natureland’s chances’’. He was later censured.
Rutledge does not take part in any council discussion or vote on Natureland, due to his conflict of interest.
His wife, Meg Rutledge, is the director of Natureland Zoo. She is not a member of the Natureland Wildlife Trust board, having stepped down in December.
At the workshop councillors discussed various options, from approaching groups like Project Janszoon through to fundraising to attempting to find potential new buyers.
Mayor Rachel Reese said a likely course of action would be to put the proposed increase of funding from $170,000 to $248,000 up for public consultation, though she thought the process could take long enough that Natureland could be forced to begin shut-down procedures before a decision could be made.
Calculations indicated that increasing the funding would increase rates by $3.30 per rateable value per year.