I hate that place. I loved it when I was younger and got to play and pet baby bears, lions, tigers, cougars, caracals and many other animals there.. but then I started working at a zoo and learned what a bad place it is.
They're pretty much a baby factory. They breed so they can draw in people. They keep their animals in bad conditions and a lot of their cubs die. Exposing baby animals (we've held 7-8 week old bear cubs there before, as an example of how young they start doing this) to so many people is really harmful as they can pick up things. Plus, within the zoo community, that's kind of looked down upon. You don't want animals that are going to be coming up to people all the time and stuff. Those are the animals that end up killing their keepers/trainers. They're not accredited by any zoo society (like AZA) or the like either because they won't adhere to standards and I know that the USDA has gotten after them a few times.
Sorry to rant, I'm sure you had a good time. I just hate to see people go "it's such a great place!" when it's not really :/
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-10-10 08:47 pm (UTC)They're pretty much a baby factory. They breed so they can draw in people. They keep their animals in bad conditions and a lot of their cubs die. Exposing baby animals (we've held 7-8 week old bear cubs there before, as an example of how young they start doing this) to so many people is really harmful as they can pick up things. Plus, within the zoo community, that's kind of looked down upon. You don't want animals that are going to be coming up to people all the time and stuff. Those are the animals that end up killing their keepers/trainers. They're not accredited by any zoo society (like AZA) or the like either because they won't adhere to standards and I know that the USDA has gotten after them a few times.
Sorry to rant, I'm sure you had a good time. I just hate to see people go "it's such a great place!" when it's not really :/