Ownership of the big cats at Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary has never been determined since the park started operations two decades ago. Photo / Michael Cunningham
News this week that Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary has gone into liquidation— just over a year after it re-opened under new management— came as a shock to many and not a surprise to some.
The iconic facility on Gray Rd in Kamo has changed names, owners, and re-opening dates since the big cats were moved from Puketotara in Kerikeri to the present site in early 2003. At the time, residents along that road were unsure if living among wild animals in their neighbourhood was a good idea.
What followed was a tumultuous, stop-start two decades in which the park went into receivership once and liquidation twice and has had a big cat handler mauled to death by white royal Bengal tiger Abu as he cleaned a cage in 2009.
Reporter Imran Ali takes readers down memory lane on the highs and lows of the park over the years.
Whangarei District Council granted a certificate of compliance for the first stage of the development at the park in early 2003 because it was deemed a permitted activity under WDC’s proposed district plan.
The 48-hectare site was to be home to an exotic display of animals including wild cats, deer, zebra, and horses.
The park was originally managed by Patricia Busch and her son Craig Busch, better known as The Lion Man, until both later became embroiled in a protracted legal battle over the ownership of Zion Wildlife Park and other matters.
Towards the middle of 2004, TV2 series Lion Man was shot at the park over nine weeks as television cameras followed Craig Busch on his dream to be part of a worldwide breeding and conservation programme for endangered big cats.
The film crew tracked Craig on a trip through South Africa funded by pet-food manufacturer Chef as part of its programme to help endangered cats. While in South Africa, he met fellow cat conservationist Ed Hearn who ran the Rhino Lion Park, 1600 hectares of grassland north of Johannesburg, and negotiated a deal to bring another rare lion to New Zealand.
British film producer Rowena Paxton accompanied Craig on his journey. She was hoping to use Zion in a TV series about the original Daktari vet, Sue Hart, who they visited and who worked with wild lions with Born Free’s George Adamson in the 1960s.
Rowena and Craig visited Headspruit, the world’s largest cheetah breeding centre, where Craig met seven of the 40 king cheetahs that remained worldwide at the time, and expressed his wish to bring a breeding pair back to New Zealand.
It was decided that Craig can keep his kings of the jungle entertaining the public at Zion after two hearings commissioners approved a resource consent application for the development of the lion park that ended doubts about its future.
An overwhelming 21 out of 25 submitters opposed Zion’s application and the main objections related to traffic, safety, sewage disposal and noise. One submitter claimed lions could be heard 8km away when roaring at night, but another person wrote they enjoyed the noise.
Damning documents from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry at the end of 2008 expressed concerns over animals kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions. Officials were also concerned about barriers, with one external fence damaged and not repaired for a day and a half, and lions and tigers kept in the same enclosure.
Among the options being considered by MAF were finding a new operator, or even performing euthanasia on 40 of the park’s big cats.
At about the same time, Patricia Busch suspended her son from his job at the park, and the ministry suspended his operating license.
Auckland Zoo boss Glen Holland was brought in as a “licensed operator” as required by MAF, to be responsible for the animals. The feud between the mother and son ended up in the High Court, with the latter unsuccessfully asking the court to appoint independent directors to run the park because her mother was allegedly keeping details of the business’ finances from him.
He also took his mother to the Employment Relations Authority in 2009, claiming unjustified dismissal. A hearing in Whangārei had to be abruptly postponed after a tiger fatally mauled Dalu MnCube at the park.
Craig later withdrew his ERA claims.
In 2011, Zion Wildlife Gardens went into receivership and then into liquidation while Craig moved to have his mother declared bankrupt over a debt of $3800. Beth McVerry and Ian Stevenson of Tauranga announced the following year they were the new owners of Zion, with Craig back at the park with his big cats.
Auckland-based Bolton Equities bought the business from Earth Crest in mid-2014, renamed it Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary, and sunk in nearly $12 million to upgrade the facilities to Ministry of Primary Industries standard.
The park re-opened to the public in November 2021. A key issue that remains unresolved is who owns the big cats. A High Court hearing to determine the cats’ ownership, scheduled in the High Court at Whangarei in early 2012, was discontinued and the case closed.
Craig argued he had originally acquired the animals himself and then transferred them to Busch Wildlife Foundation Limited trustees via a sale and purchase agreement dated July 4, 2005.
Therefore, his position was the trust owned the animals.
If the transfer was invalid, his fallback position was that, by default, he must still be the owner of the animals.
One of the issues set to be determined at trial was whether he had validly transferred the animals to the trust.
His mother claimed the trust was effectively a sham and had never taken possession of the animals.
Late last year, Craig again claimed he owned the big cats and reportedly launched a fundraiser to move them 12,000km away to South Africa.
He further claimed sanctuary owners Bolton Equity and park management did not have his permission to open the park and show the cats.
His estranged mother is backing her son, saying Bolton Equities owned the park but was forcing control over the big cats.
She wrote letters to the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Bolton Equities and other related parties that raised the issue of filming rights at the park and ownership of the cats.