G.W. Exotic Animal Park's Future Uncertain

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

WYNNEWOOD, Oklahoma -- The G.W. Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood is facing hard times. Attendance is down, and donations have fallen dramatically.

The park depends heavily on private donations, but since the recession hit, donations have dropped about 70 percent. The park has enough food for its 187 big cats, but recently the park was asked to accept more lions, more tigers, and a couple of Michael Jackson's giraffes.

"When the Neverland Ranch closed out there, the facility in Arizona went out to California and picked them up and took them to Page, Arizona. And recently, just in the last week, two of them perished out there, so they've got two left," said G.W. Exotic Animal Park owner Joe Schreibvogel.

The falloff in donations has put a halt to construction of new pens for the new animals. Now Schreibvogel has launched a new, simple fund raising effort on the park's Web site that allows people to pledge $10 apiece.

"If we can pull off getting 8,000 people to just text $10, we can bring in all the animals, build the rest of the facilities we need, and carry us into the winter and get us into the spring," said Schreibvogel.

To pledge $10 to G.W. Exotic Animal Park visit their website or text "GWPARK" to 85944, and after receiving a response reply back with "YES."