The Buiktuin petting zoo officially started in 1975.
In the seventies the last farms in Noord slowly disappeared. Every resident, including Bonnie Alberts and Tineke Oost, took the initiative in 1972 to set up a children’s farm. With the aim to keep children informed about where our food comes from.
Van Baarsen Concrete Factory
The site where the farm was built used to be the site of the Van Baarsen concrete factory. The site was still full of rubble and stones. Some of it was removed. Another part remained. The municipality poured a thick layer of earth over it. That is why there are still small hills visible on the site.
Opening
After three years of preparation, sowing grass, building fences and stables, finding animals, the petting zoo was festively opened in 1975. The opening was performed by none other than Aart Staartjes, already known at the time from the Stratenmakeropzeeshow and the Film van Ome Willem.
The terrain was a lot smaller in the beginning, from the mill to the stable. Only later were the first and second sheep pastures added. The original fences were a lot lower than the current metal fences. They were slanted inwards, to keep the animals in. They were made of wood so it was a lot of work to maintain them.
Animals
In the past, the animals at the petting zoo were actively bred, so that young animals could often be shown to visitors. For example, the goats would go ‘stay’ with a farmer with a billy goat and return pregnant. When the little goats grew up, they went to the cattle market. Some of them ended up in the slaughterhouse. Nowadays, no young animals (except birds) are born at the petting zoo and the animals are allowed to grow old with us.
Volunteers
The petting zoo has been run by volunteers from the beginning. Some from that first period still work there. In the eighties and nineties there was also a paid manager, Bram Waasdijk. He worked at De Buiktuin until his retirement. The shifts were divided in two: you could work a morning or an afternoon. There was also a youth team that helped with the care of the animals. What has never changed, however, is the nature of the work: feeding the animals, cleaning out the stables and chatting with visitors.
Anecdotes
One of the first donkeys at the petting zoo was Donkey, the mother of Donja who is still with us. She came from Amersfoort and was picked up there by the animal ambulance. Fortunately, she was not that big and she fit in the car. The journey went smoothly, although she apparently sweated a lot. There was also a Yorkshire pig at the petting zoo for a while, which is a lot bigger than the current pot-bellied pigs. She came from Harry Slinger, the singer of the pop group Drukwerk, who lived on the Kamperfoelieweg at the time. He had received her at a performance and did not know what to do with her. Then he donated her to the petting zoo.
Do you also have an anecdote from the history of De Buiktuin? Let us know!