Usually, you go to the zoo to look at live animals. But at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, people also went to see the dead ones.
The attraction, called the Delbridge Museum of Natural History, hosted one of the most impressive taxidermy collections in the country, with some 150 animals from six continents, each meticulously positioned in a diorama depicting their natural habitat. There, visitors could encounter — up close — a (stationary) mob of kangaroos, a pouncing lion, a panda eating bamboo and more.
On Aug. 18, Sioux Falls and Great Plains Zoo officials announced that the Delbridge Museum had closed after nearly 40 years, citing an increased risk of chemical exposure to staff and visitors as the animal specimens age. At a news conference, streamed live on Facebook on Aug. 29, they specified that a majority of the taxidermy mounts contained arsenic, a toxin that can cause pregnancy complications, cancer and even death.
“When we have a known carcinogen in one of our public displays, we can’t take risk,” Paul TenHaken, the mayor of Sioux Falls, said at the conference. Dave Pfeifle, city attorney for Sioux Falls, added that “there are no acceptable levels of risk regarding arsenic.”