The King of Beasts is Dead – A Tribute to Norbert Zajac

The entrepreneur and founder of the world’s largest pet shop Norbert Zajac died unexpectedly at the age of 67. He founded and managed his huge pet shop with 140,000 sqft in Duisburg/Germany with hundreds of thousands of animals, he is in the Guinness Book of Records with his gigantic shop. 3,000 different animal species are sold at Zoo Zajac, around 250,000 animals live in the sales halls. He became known with his YouTube videos with almost 300,000 subscribers and 60 million people have watched his videos. He was constantly accompanied by TV teams for docu-soaps and reports. In 2016 he had his own TV show.

Norbert Zajac was fascinated by animals even as a child. At the age of 13, he kept over 200 budgerigars and parrots and was recognized as a breeder. In the 1970s he opened a pet shop in Duisburg. With his unconventional and sometimes ingenious ideas, which he mostly implemented in a straightforward and consistent manner, he fascinated and inspired the pet industry in the coming decades, but also shock some.

In 2004 he made his promise come true and opened the world’s largest pet shop in Duisburg. “The new shop is a mixture of Disneyland, petting zoo, pet shop, and trade fair,” was how Norbert described it at the time of the opening.

For animal rights activists Zajac was the pain in the neck, among other things he also sold rare exotic animals and puppies, he was constantly under criticism. In his shop, you can buy chickens, crocodiles, capybaras, and sloths. His concept worked and it became a place of pilgrimage for all animal lovers.

His wife Jutta Zajac will continue to run the company, with Kathi Geven as managing director at her side. The company will be continued in his spirit.

In addition to his wife Jutta, Norbert Zajac also leaves behind two daughters, Katja and Nicole, and two grandchildren.

The video below is originally in German. However, you can turn on translated subtitles by following these steps:
1. Click the gear button on the video and select “German (auto-generated)
2. Click the gear button a second time, and select “Auto-Translate.” This will open a menu that allows you to choose your preferred language from the list of options.
3. Click on your language of choice, and you’ll now be able to read the subtitles.