News
After 73 Years The Catskill Game Farm Is Closing
October 07, 2006, 12:0AM MT
By
By MICHAEL HILL
By MICHAEL HILL
Associated Press Writer
CATSKILL, N.Y. -- Wet-nosed, woolly and hungry, the Catskill Game Farm sheep formed a tight scrum around Ann Marie Enright and her grown daughter at the sight of crackers in their hands.
"You can't really go anywhere else and interact with animals," Enright said with a smile as the sheep nibbled away. The Westchester County woman said two grandchildren, ages 2 and 7, were still cooing about their visit the day before. "That's all they're talking about, 'the moo animals."'
The grandkids will be the last generation of Enright's family to visit Catskill Game Farm, which closes for good Oct. 9 after a 73-year run. About a thousand animals, from alligators to yaks, will go on the auction block a week later. Owners of the venerable Hudson Valley attraction _ born before the rise of passenger jets, extreme thrill rides and animal rights advocacy _ say too few people are coming through the gates now.
"Today's generation is more sophisticated," said Kathie Schulz, whose father bought the land in 1933. "A trip to the game farm doesn't have the same appeal anymore."
The game farm is tucked into 200 woodsy acres just east of the Catskill Mountains, a couple of hours north of New York City. Its main draw has always been allowing children to go snout to shoulder with the likes of llamas and deer for feeding. But most of the creatures _ the ones that can bite, charge, scratch or trample _ live behind chain-link fences.
The attraction was started by Roland Lindemann, a New York City businessman who emigrated from Germany as teenager in 1923. He bought the land as a getaway spot, but it wasn't long before he started making his childhood dream to own a zoo come true. He bought a deer _ he loved deer _ then a pygmy donkey. He soon had a menagerie, and people started stopping by to have a look.
He began charging admission during World War II: 25 cents for adults, 10 cents for kids. Schulz was born in 1941 and grew up with the park.
By the late '60s and early '70s, the park was drawing around 500,000 visitors a year, many of them city families up for vacation.
Crowds started thinning down in the '70s as the game farm was hammered by the same cultural forces that doomed the Catskills famed Borscht Belt to the south. Baby boomers raising their own families were inclined to take advantage of cheap airfares to head for sunnier destinations.
The game farm averages about 100,000 visitors a year now.
Zoos can still pull in big crowds, though it helps to have splashy attractions. The Bronx Zoo, for instance, draws about 1.9 million visitors a year with its cable cars and simulated Congo Gorilla Forest. Scott C. Borowsky, executive editor of Tourist Attractions and Parks Magazine, said that in today's competitive market, many zoos are adding amusement attractions to stay viable.
"Everybody is competing for that same entertainment dollar," Borowsky said.
Schulz, who bought the business with her then-husband in 1989, said she doesn't have enough money for the sort of "monumental facelift" the attraction requires. With its old, wood-sided buildings, the game farm remains reminiscent of a time when baby boomers were kids and amusement parks had names like Carson City and Storytown.
On a Monday afternoon in late September, the animals seemed to outnumber the visitors, many of them young couples with baby strollers. Francine Laterzi, up for a long weekend from Queens with her family, talked about her _ mostly _ fond memories of coming here as a girl as her little boy toddled down the dirt walkways.
"I remember that monkey grabbing my ponytail," she said.
Though the place maintains a nostalgic glow for many, animal rights advocates have been critical over the years, alleging animal mistreatment. One disturbing complaint against the game farm is that in the 90s, the owners sold animals raised in the people-friendly confines of the farm to canned hunts. Schulz said confusion arose because her ex-husband ran an animal import/export business under the same license as the game farm. She said no game farm animals were sold to canned hunts.
Canned Hunts
This does little to assuage critics now that some 1,000 animals will go up for auction along with the farm's tractors, pizza ovens and kiddie rides. Animals on the block Oct. 17-18 include 10 alligators, 113 fallow deer, 51 cockatiels and a boa constrictor.
Schulz said everything is "100 percent legal," monitored by government regulators. Besides, she said many animals are headed to sanctuaries and she's not auctioning any trophy animals.
A group called Advocates for Game Farm Animals said there are no guarantees that auctioned animals will not be resold to places like slaughterhouses. A press release from the group said a "blood bath looms."
"It may be unethical, but it's completely legal," said AGFA's Kirsti Gholson.
Schulz, who calls herself a conservationist, said she is hurt by the criticism.
She keeps a picture of her father _ a white haired man holding a koala _ and said she would never tarnish his memory. She intends to honor his creation through to the end, down to two days this month when bidders start hauling his legacy away.
"I'll be here in tears," she said. "But I'll be here."
Note:
Roland Lindemann founded the park in 1933 with a couple of white-tailed deer, some donkeys, and a few sheep. His daughter, Kathie Schulz, took over in 1989.
Photo: Catskill Farm, 2004.
http://www.catskillgamefarm.com/