When Exotic Pets Are Cashed In, Zoo in Vegas Is Winner

Half the animals in Nevada’s only zoo came from private homes and backyards in this gambling metropolis.

“This town is full of fascinating people from all over the world, people with exotic tastes. Keeping lions, tigers and leopards as family pets isn’t all that unusual in Las Vegas,” said Pat Dingle, 39, director of the Southern Nevada Zoological Park as he groomed the mane of Arnie, a 2 1/2-year-old, 400-pound African lion.

Dingle, a former homicide detective, estimated that 200 to 300 big cats are kept in private homes in Las Vegas. Permits are granted to keep some of those animals in certain sections of the city and surrounding area. But many are kept illegally as pets.

Make Their Way to Zoo

“It’s crazy. I believe there are more lions, tigers, leopards and ocelots in Las Vegas homes than in any city in the country,” Dingle said. Many of those animals make their way to the zoo with the cooperation of the local animal shelter and state and federal wildlife agencies.

Arnie, for instance, was a baby when given to a Las Vegas showgirl as a 1983 Christmas present. By the time Arnie was three months old and weighed 25 pounds, its owner decided that an African lion really did not belong in an apartment house. She gave the lion to the animal shelter, which presented it to the Las Vegas zoo.

Other house pets that are now zoo animals include a 4-year-old female Bengal tiger named Zarah and a 3-year-old Asian spotted leopard named Samantha.

Some offers, however, are refused. “We turned away 20 big cats so far this year,” Dingle said. “We don’t have the room or facilities to house them at the present.”

The zoo is on a half-acre site on Rancho Boulevard at the north end of the city. Another 5 1/2 adjacent acres have been purchased, and a master plan has been drawn up for an $8-million, six-acre zoological park.

Plans to Go Public

Dingle said lawyers and accountants are preparing plans for the zoo to go public with a stock sale sometime next year.

Several prominent Nevadans are members of the zoo’s advisory board and board of directors. The zoo has had the backing of area business and government leaders, and more than 500 people have become association members by paying annual dues.

The zoo was launched in 1981 by Dingle, who may be the only former cop anywhere running a zoological park. A radar man aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown for four years during the Vietnam War, he joined the North Las Vegas Police Department when he was 21 upon leaving the Navy.

He was chief of detectives when he retired in 1980 after a dozen years on the police force.

“Since I was a kid growing up in Alhambra, Calif., I have always had birds, especially parrots,” Dingle said. “My older brother, Sheldon, is editor of Watchbird magazine, a leading bird publication.”

Opened Bird Shop

While a detective in 1979, he opened a local bird shop, known as For the Birds. “It was an overnight success. I quit the police force the following year to spend full time with the business,” he recalled.

At For the Birds he exhibited his personal birds, which some regarded as the finest collection of exotic birds and talking parrots in Nevada. He purchased several small animals, including goats, sheep, a llama, and started a petting zoo for children of his customers.

“There was nowhere in Nevada where children or adults could see lions, tigers, apes and other wild animals except in animal acts at casinos. They could only read about them in books, see them in movies or on TV or travel great distances to see them,” Dingle said. “The idea hit me. Nevada needs a zoo.”

So, 3 1/2 years ago, he opened the Southern Nevada Zoological Park.

He built a veterinary hospital on the grounds to care for the zoo animals as well as for animals from the public.

Today, Dingle’s wife Muffye, 42, a former manicurist, and seven full-time keepers operate the zoo. Veterinarians Scott Bradley, 34, and his wife Ann, 31, run the animal hospital.

150 Birds on Exhibit

The zoo, Dingle said, is in a modest, early stage with 50 animals and 150 birds, representing 50 exotic species such as yellow, streaked chattering loris, golden eagles, flamingos, macaws, parrots and parakeets from around the world.

San Diego Zoo has been very helpful, giving six rare Barbary apes and a dozen African green grivet monkeys to the zoo. Nancy With the Smiling Face, one of the green grivets, recently gave birth, the third baby that the monkey has had since arriving at the zoo.

Describing his concept for the expanded, $8-million zoo, Dingle said, “Nearly all major zoos occupy huge areas. The San Diego Zoo has 110 acres, the Los Angeles Zoo 100 acres. Here we will have a fair-sized zoo on only six acres, a zoo where visitors will be nose to nose with the animals.”