MOORESVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A popular Mooresville attraction has been forced to change operations because of new federal guidelines.
Lazy 5 Ranch is known for giving visitors a chance to get up close and personal with animals on the more than three-mile drive trail where hundreds of animals from six continents roam. It has become a regular destination for field trips and family outings for 31 years, but now the animal experience has changed because of U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.
The new policy would require a staff member to be present any time an animal is fed. Lazy 5 Barn Manager Jennifer Smith explained the changes have forced the temporary closure of the walk-through area where people could feed goats and see birds.
“March 8 [USDA] came out with a new inspectors’ guideline, which is a book that tells inspectors how to inspect and specifically how to interpret certain roles that may have in the past said ‘adequate’ or ‘sufficient’, which is open to a lot of variables,” Smith said.
The USDA guidelines also forced a big change for the drive-thru visitors who can no longer feed animals from their vehicles. Now feeding is limited to wagon rides.
“It’s been detrimental,” Smith said. “We’ve had some field trip groups cancel, we’ve had cars come in realize that they’re not going to be able to feed and interact with the animals like they have in the past, and they turned around and left. It’s just not the same experience. It’s not what they were expecting.”
Smith says the guidelines do not reflect the real risk involved with human-animal contact.
“We’ve been open for 31 years and we’ve had little to no problems with animal-human contact,” Smith said. “Thousands and thousands of people have fed and interacted with the animals with absolutely zero injury to humans or animals.”
Wagon rides are available with a reservation. Space is limited because the wagons are driven by horses.
“It is proven beneficial,” Smith said. “It’s helpful with children with autism, we have blind groups, we have deaf groups, we have we have all kinds. It really improves a human being’s life to be able to interact with animals, and the USDA is causing a damper on that.”
Smith says Lazy 5 has been in mediation with USDA officials to address their concerns while maintaining the fun.
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“What can people do to help? You all you can contact your legislators, your senators and your representatives and the USDA, and let them know that you miss this interaction at Lazy 5, that this interaction not only here, but other places is important,” she explained.
Support has been pouring in through Facebook, where Lazy 5 Ranch has been documenting its journey with the USDA and the forced changes.
“It really warms our heart because we have a huge Facebook following and we have a huge amount of people who support us,” Smith said. “People have been bringing their families here for years and years generation after generation to experience this with their children and they’ve sent us videos they send us encouraging posts and encouraging words and cards and phone calls just telling us to hang in there.”