The Northern New York Zoo Fiasco 2010, Part II

Welcome back to Heidi's Adventures in Animal Land. After the alpaca farm disaster, I decided to check out a zoo that I learned about online. (You would think I'd have learned by now...) You will be able to visit the link by clicking here - again, so you can see why I thought they looked legit... But I decided to call just in case - and they said that they were open for business.

Another 45 minute car ride - we were again talking about the people who were "not nice" at the alpaca farm and that I hoped this one would go better and that Amelia could see bears and monkeys and all kinds of fun animals. Yay!

We arrive and as I pull up I see this:

This isn't like any zoo I've ever seen... I am thinking to myself...

This is the view from the parking lot... I get Amelia out of the car and then Zoë and I am looking around wondering where everyone is... and a woman comes out and says, "Hi - we're sort of open." And I wanted to yell, "Are you flipping kidding me? I CALLED YOU YESTERDAY AND YOU SAID YOU WERE OPEN." But again, I have Amelia the sponge with me and don't, so I say, "Um, what do you mean?" She told me that they hadn't power washed the sidewalks and there wasn't anyone around. I said, "Can she at least see some animals?" And the woman said yes - so we went in.

Through this door:

Need a closer look?:

And yes, that small blue pool you see beyond the front gate is a pool of about 10 alligators.

And they still charged us FULL PRICE to enter. But at this point I didn't care, and I am wondering - are there seriously BEARS in this ghetto-like structure? It didn't take me long to realize that this "zoo" is one that would tug at my animal-loving heart strings because of the conditions.

So, we continue in (why I don't know). I didn't bring the camera in because I had forgotten it in the car - I actually thought of dashing the 5 feet back to get it... but good thing I didn't because there were chickens and peacocks roaming freely. Right by the alligator pen.

We get past the alligators and the woman working there gives us a visual tour and hands us a bag of food to feed the animals. (more on that later). Then comes my favorite part. She says, "So you can walk anywhere, but don't go into the pens (no kidding?) If you see an OPEN gate just shut it (WHAT????) Over there are the rabbits and you can go in there and you can also go in to pet the goats. If the goats are too frisky with you just grab them by the horns and push them away." "Uh, okay, I say," and in my head I am thinking Crazy Lady, we ain't goin' into ANY of these pens! If I can get my kid outta here in 5 minutes it'll be a freaking miracle!"

We begin our "tour" and head on down to see the bears - 5 of them in a 1200 square foot cage - my heart breaks. We go by them and see the monkeys which Amelia LOVES. I reach into the bag of food and pull out their "feed." Guess what it is? No you can't guess it - you never could: It's freaking HONEY NUT CHEERIOS. I was unaware that was a part of the native diet of wild animals. It is then that I realize the reality of this "zoo:" I think the people who own it and run it genuinely love the animals, but they have a complete lack of education and understanding about appropriate animal conditions. That makes me even more sad - I don't think they're bad folks, they're just not that smart. So we kept on walking - we saw lions, camels, ostriches (ostrichi? ostrich?) goats, swans (also roaming freely, aren't they supposed to be mean... we steered clear), a fox, and other rare animals.... But I was ready to go and convinced Amelia that it was time for the animals naps and so we left....

In the future I need to take a cue from my youngest and be more skeptical, like she is of her Grammie in this picture:


As we pulled out, Amelia said, "I loved that, Mommy! I saw monkeys!" Which makes me very happy - but we're not ever going back there!