Little Ray's Reptile Zoo

Hi everyone.

Many of you have been following the story regarding the issue we’re having with the city of Hamilton and we wanted to give everyone a quick update. Please note. The city is NOT trying to shut us down. They just want us to remove our crocodilians, snakes that reach an adult size of over 3 metres, some of the tarantulas and scorpions, the marmosets, and 1 lizard. About 30% of the animals we have on display. If you have not heard this is where we are at. It’s a long but interesting read;

• 1. In February Steve Featherstone (pictured) and I decided we would partner up to open a world class zoo and nature centre in downtown Hamilton.
• 2. We were both very familiar with the current By-Law in place in Hamilton and reached out to the city’s animal services department to find out what we needed to do to apply for an exemption.
• 3. City staff at animal control walked us through the By-Law and outlined that we would be exempted under section 3.2 (K) of the city’s By-Law as the prohibited animals would be a temporary exhibit. (As many of our followers know we rotate exhibits through our facilities every 4 months to a year).
• 4. We specifically asked about getting a written exemption and were assured we would not need one.
• 5. After being told we did not need to apply for an exemption we contacted City of Hamilton zoning to find out where we could open an educational zoo and nature centre. City staff worked very hard trying to find a location with us and covered over 80 locations with Steve and myself.
• 6. The end of March we received a zoning verification letting us know that indeed we would be able to open at 869 Barton St East at the corner of Barton and Gage.
• 7. We opened our facility June 8th with an incredible exhibit entitled ‘Crocodilians of the World’ which is set to be on display until April 19th.
• 8. Early July we were visited by animal control letting us know we were in violation of the current By-Law. We advised them of the conversation we had with the individual in their office. They advised us that this individual made a mistake and this was incorrect.
• 9. After receiving this notice from Animal Services we contacted the individual who told us we would be exempted under the current By-Law letting them know we had been served a notice to comply with the By-Law and wanted to know what we misunderstood. She proceeded to advise us again that we have nothing to worry about and if you look at section 3.2 (k) we would be exempted.
• 10. I immediately contacted our lawyer to keep her in the loop who advised me that indeed we would be exempted as we were displaying temporary exhibits.
• 11. We went to the city yesterday to apply for an exemption as we would like to not just have mobile temporary displays but would like to permanently keep some of the larger animals on display and were denied the request to even apply for an exemption.
• 12. The next step is to appeal the decision with the Licensing tribunal which we are gathering information on now and will keep everyone up to date on this.

Steve and I want to assure everyone we were very familiar with the By-Law and contacted the Animal Services to find out what we needed to do to open such a facility in Hamilton in compliance with the current By-Law. We 100% support the existing By-Law. We were not ignorant to the By-Law and how to get exempted. We have been in business for 18 years in Ottawa and travel across the country. We have applied for and received permits in every province in Canada and have held these permits in good standing year after year upon return. We receive permits, authorizations, and licenses in the city’s we travel to on a regular basis. We thought we needed to apply for an exemption and this is the reason we contacted the Animal Control department in February. We were assured by staff in Animal Control on 2 separate occasions that we did not need to apply and our displays would be exempted as temporary exhibits.

After over $200,000 in renovations and signing a 5 year lease the city is now saying our ‘Crocodiles of the World’ exhibit that is here for 6 more months is not a temporary exhibit??? Interesting. If you would like more information on this story, here is the CBC article from yesterday.

Who are we? Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo has been in business since 1995 offering fun, interactive, educational programming. We have been an asset to the city of Ottawa, the MNR, Environment Canada and the SPCA since our inception. We have been called in by the OSPCA 7 times in the past month to aid with inspections, seizures, and the placement of unwanted and confiscated reptiles and amphibians. Our Ottawa zoo has been going through the accreditation process with CAZA (Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums) and was inspected this past summer and will be meeting with the accreditation commission this September. Our Hamilton location is a separate corporation set up on the principles, policies, protocols, and programs set out by our Ottawa zoo. We have advised CAZA that our Hamilton location is applying for accreditation this upcoming year as well.

It was unfortunate that city staff felt that we need to apply for an exemption after we were told our exhibits would be exempted and then denied us the ability to apply for the exemption??? We had been inspected by the head of the OSPCA and the chief inspector of the OSPCA and had a glowing letter of reference from them. Tom Mason, past curator of 26 years with the Toronto Metro Zoo and over 40 years working in zoos in Canada and Europe, did an inspection of our facility keeping CAZA standards in mind and gave us a glowing letter of reference and recommendation. The City of Ottawa, the Ministry of Natural Resources, many schools and parents all supplied us with glowing letters of recommendation and it did not appear these were even considered. A couple other key points to consider;

• Since opening in downtown Hamilton we have received 1000′s of visitors with more then half coming from outside of the City of Hamilton as we have a huge following in Kitchener, London, Toronto, and the Greater Niagara Region. Tourism to downtown Hamilton can not be a bad thing???
• We have received over 19 animals at this location since opening with more then half of them being prohibited under the By-Law. People having a place to drop them off can not be a bad thing?
• Lastly and ironically…. About half the animals currently being displayed in our ‘Crocodile of the World’ exhibit have been living in a pet store in Hamilton for as much as the past 15 years. This store utilized them for quality programming in the past. Ironically enough these animals have been moved from a pet store to a world class, family oriented, educational zoo and nature centre and now the city wants them gone???

One parent has started a petition to let us keep these animals and we would appreciate your support.

Please take a moment and sign the below petition started by a Hamilton parent to allow us to have these incredible temporary exhibits rotate through our new facility in Hamilton.

Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo (Hamilton): Help them keep their animals so they can continue to educate our community.

Thank you everyone for your support and wish us luck. Please share with your friends. We need your support more now then ever.

Keep exploring,

Little Ray.