Animals set to retire: Waterloo Council chooses to close Eby Farmstead

Waterloo councillors agreed with the public, they’ve decided to put an end of an era and let the animals at Eby Farmstead retire.

During a council meeting Monday, Waterloo council voted in favour of closing down the animal display inside Waterloo Park.

A new masterplan for the park is in the works, that could be released next year or in early 2026. But first councillors wanted to figure out what to do with the nine animals and the two acres of space they live on.

The animal display has been a nostalgic favourite of many in the region, since its inception 57 years ago.

City staff cited it would cost about $5 million to upgrade, modernize and bring the animal enclosure up to current standards. They usually only had a budget of $75,000 in operational costs for the animals every year.

Waterloo Coun. Royce Bodaly said that money in 2025 will be used to take the enclosures down, regrade and reseed the area while also possibly adding some picnic tables.

 “The size of the animal enclosures has been shrinking over time, the bird cage has not been in the park for many, many years. We are already sort or reimaging much of that space,” Bodaly said while on The Mike Farwell Show.

“When we look at all of these upgrade that have happened in the park whether the accessible playground or the boardwalk, the twinning of the bridge over Silver Lake, upgrades to the baseball diamond, the new splashpad, the basketball court, the trail circulation. There’s a ton of stuff going on in the park,” added Bodaly.

Som of the improvements needed for the animals to stay included better shelter from noise like the LRT, more grazing areas and restricting access to the public at certain times.

Bodaly mentioned he shares sentiment around the animals in the park, as it has been a nostalgic pastime to visit Eby Farmstead for some, but a large share of the public did think it was time to get the animals out of a busy urban area.

In 2026 that operational funding could go back into the budget but Bodaly said he believes that money should stay in the park as there are more projects in the works.

“As the Waterloo Park council liaison to the advisory committee I know that there are more projects in the park then dollars we have available to fund those projects from the current Waterloo Park Masterplan, let alone what we are going to see when the new Waterloo Park Masterplan is created in conjunction with the community.”