The zoo was struggling as a business. The family were working around the clock to keep the zoo open and no one had a day off! George Mottershead decided the best way forward would be for the zoo to become a non-profit organisation, which would run the zoo as a society. For this he would need financial backing, which he believed his friends and supporters would help him with. The zoo was in danger of being closed down. An appeal to save the zoo went out to the public.