Court finally closes roadside zoo operation in Murphy, NC

MURPHY, North Carolina (WDEF) – After years of litigation, a court has finally closed a roadside zoo in Murphy, North Carolina for good.

The King Kong Zoological Park shutdown at the end of 2014.

But the consent decree issued last week keeps it from ever re-opening.

The Animal legal Defense Fund supported three Murphy residents who filed suit saying the family owned business for inhumane treatment of the animals.

The Curtis family moved to the Murphy area from Florida in 1989 and opened the zoo.

It featured domesticated animals plus wild ones, including lions, bears and Siberian Tigers.

In 2011, the park displayed a pair of tiger cubs born at the zoo.

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But the animals were kept in cages on concrete floors., “too small, too barren and too poorly maintained to meet the basic biological needs of these complex species,” according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

“Roadside zoos are a travesty in the world of animal display,” says Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. “Far too often these facilities are ill-equipped to provide appropriate and humane living conditions for captive animals and violate animal protection laws. When law enforcement fails them, the Animal Legal Defense Fund turns to the courts to ensure that the laws are upheld.”

The organization says that their lawsuit was inspired by Archie, a chimpanzee confined in isolation in a chain link cage with a concrete floor.

They say they offered to help him, but the Zoo shipped him off to another roadside zoo where he died along with other animals in a fire at their primate barn.

Here is one visit to the Park from 2010.