The Clay Center Zoo and Fox Kits For Sale on Craigslist

This ad was posted on Craigslist:

HI i have a Baby female red fox kit that i need to rehome. CAPTIVE BRED Comes with papers from local zoo! (CLAY CENTER) Born in May...

We are interested in reptile and aquarium trades. AQUARIUM MUST BE BIGGER THAN 100 GALLONS. Macaw parrots as well. CALL OR TEXT ME AT 917-XXX-XXXX.

And this ad was posted:

We have an 8 week old baby golden island arctic fox for rehome. She is tame and very nice with children and other dogs. Call or text 917 (same #) for rehome fee. You will get her cage with her! SHE IS VERY RARE !!! I WILL TRADE FOR GUNS & FOR A MACAW    

This created lots of chatter, not only because you can’t sell “pets” on the site, but because she claimed that this was perfectly fine because the kits had been purchased from a zoo and said she had the paperwork to prove it. Here's another ad, run a few weeks later:

I HAVE A 7 WEEK OLD RARE BABY ARCTIC MARBLE FOX TO BE REHOMED OR TRADED! SHE IS VERY TAME, LOVES TO CUDDLE AND PLAYS WITH KIDS DAILY. SHE EATS MOSTLY SALMON/TUNA CAT FOOD AND LOVES IT WITH A DOGGY TREAT. HER COLORS ARE JUST AS RARE FOR THIS TYPE OF FOX! THERE IS A REHOME FEE WHICH IS LESS THAN WHAT I HAVE INTO HER. YOU WILL BE GETTING A LARGE DOG CARRIER AS WELL.

I had never heard of the Clay Center Zoo so I looked it up. I was appalled to see a zoo that was built in the 1950's and seems to be stuck there, with its operators still believing it's just fine to keep wild animals on a concrete slab not much bigger than a dog run.

Cissy the Black Bear

The Clay Center Dispatch posted an article dated May 1, 2012, discussing a USDA meeting with the Public Utility Commission(PUC), who runs the zoo. As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up - the Utility company runs the zoo. The USDA requires barrier fencing, to prevent people from being able to walk right up to a caged wild animal.

Imagine that.

In response to that crazy demand, the PUC Chairman said “We just want some common sense.” Because they had built fences before, and now they were being asked to build better fences.

COMMON SENSE? Where was common sense when they installed this fence?

Or did he mean he thinks children should just have the good sense not to stick their fingers in cages? Possible, since the zoo's facebook page posted a warning to "use common sense and caution when visiting zoos."

The only other USDA requirement mentioned in the Dispatch article was that a person be on duty during zoo operating hours. The Public Utility Superintendent said the PUC “would just have to study how a person could be put on site during hours the zoo is open.”

Study? Hmmm. Seems to me you find a person and put them on site. After all, the USDA was not so demanding as to expect them to put someone on site that knows anything about animal care. Or keeping kids and wild animals separated. They just have to be present.

After learning all that, I still didn't know if zoos can sell animals to individuals. I found this site.

It not only discusses repeatedly the purchase of New Guinea Singing Dogs from the same zoo, but gives a chronological history of the zoo’s dealings with these (wild) dogs, including how they bred them yearly, sometimes with their own kind and sometimes with domestic dogs, and then sold or gave the pups away.

The Clay Center Zoo's facebook page proudly states that they used to have NGSDs.

A June 24, 2012 article in the Clay Center Dispatch says that the zoo has a new caretaker. It also states

"Other changes coming to the zoo include a few expansions planned for the bear pen, the black panther exhibit and more space for the monkeys." The article also mentions that the zoo has fewer foxes, "which were sold to other zoos..."

Nice try. And there is no evidence to date  that those changes were completed.

I still don't know if the person trying to trade fox kits for guns or macaws on Craigslist actually got the kits from the Clay Center Zoo or not. 

From everything else I've seen and learned, it would not surprise me.