SLADE, Ky. (LEX 18) — With about 1,300 animals on the grounds, the Kentucky Reptile Zoo is considered a hidden gem. The zoo conducted about 500 programs off site last year welcoming about 20,000 visitors
to exhibits at the venue in the Red River Gorge area.
"There's some tourism here, the weather is pretty nice for keeping animals, and so that's why we're here," Kristen Wiley, Zoo Director, said.
Launched in 1990 by Jim Harrison, the Zoo was founded to provide venoms from snakes all over the world and it's among the most legitimate venom providers.
"There are probably four other legitimate venom providers here in the United States and not very many worldwide," Wiley added.
About two-thirds of Kentucky Reptile Zoo's clients are overseas.
"Each different group of animal we have for venom production has its own building," Wiley said.
That's for climate control, and venom is collected for painkiller research, lupus, and cancer, just to name a few.
The zoo has 80 to 90 species on exhibit.
"All these animals are really fantastic. They really are good climbers and good swimmers," Foster Christmas, visiting from Lawrenceburg, said.
With snakes here from all over the world, there's a line commonly attributed to the owner.
"He said people say 'why are you in Kentucky, why are you here?' And he was like, why not? This is a great area," Wiley noted.
Research continues on major projects at the zoo, with staffers working with researchers in Ireland on medicine for non-small cell lung cancer.
