High Park Zoo needs to raise $100K to stay open: councillor

With the High Park Zoo facing closure due to lack of funding come June, the area’s councillor is asking for $100,000 in donations to save the park attraction.

“Council’s already decided the fate of the zoo, so in June, if we don’t raise enough money, it closes,” Coun. Sarah Doucette told CityNews. “The animals will go back to some of their homes. Some of the animals, I don’t know where they’re going.”

The zoo costs $227,000 a year to operate. With the city under tough economic pressure, council cut its funding.

Doucette says the zoo must raise $100,000 to stay open until the end of the year.

“We have now formed the Friends of High Park Zoo, who over March break have now raised over $7,000,” she said.

“I think if we can really show that we’re getting there, I want to go back to city council. I want to go back and say, ‘We need this time to bring in new corporate sponsors.’ We need sustainable funding for this,” said Doucette.

John George Howard, who donated 48 hectares of his land to create the park in 1873, said as a condition of the gift that the park always be free to visitors.

“I came here when I was young and would be happy to take my daughter here,” said one parent.

“To hear that it might be closing would be truly sad.”

To make a donation, click here.

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