TOWN OF FARMINGTON, Wis. — The Shalom Wildlife Zoo in Washington County is facing a legal battle with some of its neighbors, and the community is fired up.
TMJ4 News received dozens of emails, messages and social media tags about the issue.
According to legal documents the zoo posted on Facebook, they are accused of violating a conditional use permit, among other ordinances.
"It's very beautiful," Lori Schmitz said. "They shouldn't even try to shut it down." She and her husband visited the zoo on Tuesday after seeing the post about the legal battle on Facebook.
In the post, Shalom owner David Fechter wrote that the zoo is "under attack" by people who want to "shut them down."
"People were very quick to take the zoo's side without the full story," neighbor Matthew Werry said. "Nobody around here has any issue with the zoo. We all chose to live here next to the zoo, we love the zoo, but this is becoming more than the zoo now."
Werry lives in the Town of Farmington, the small community where the zoo is located, on the outskirts of West Bend.
Multiple neighbors sided with their fellow community members within the Town of Farmington and said they are against the zoo's plan to expand and build a new wedding venue on residential property.
Fechter argued they've been holding special events like weddings for decades, but now they want to upgrade the facility on the expanded property.
Neighbors like Jack Grochowski said the Town of Farmington board needs to hold zoo ownership accountable.
"He does what he wants to do," Grochowski said. "It's an issue for me that you can't trust what he says. He says one thing and then does another."
Both he and Werry said it comes down to keeping the neighborhood quiet.
Watch: Shalom Wildlife Zoo faces legal battle with neighbors over expansion plans
"I wouldn't want to be living next to that with all of the noise," Grochowski said. “He’s continuing to just go on and bully his way through every situation.”
Zoo customers disagreed with the neighbors.
"If they enjoy the nature, they should be able to book a venue where they can enjoy what they really like," Schmitz said. "Weddings would be very beautiful out here, I think."
"As long as it's not affecting the habitats," Krystle Anderson said. "I would say it would be fine."
TMJ4 News reached out to the zoo and its neighbors, who filed the lawsuit against Shalom, but both declined to speak on camera. Fechter directed TMJ4 to his lengthy Facebook post, which features two Google Drive links to court documents he shared.
An attorney for the neighbors who filed the lawsuit emailed TMJ4 News the following statement:
We have no desire to interfere with the long-standing operations of the Shalom Wildlife Zoo. The legal filing is not about shutting down the Zoo, but rather about protecting our family’s safety and privacy and ensuring that local ordinances are applied fairly for all residents, particularly around the expansion of the zoo and the addition of a new event space / wedding venue on a residential property. We will allow the legal process to address these issues and refrain from engaging in disputes through social media or any further public commentary.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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