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Post by Mari on Sept 22, 2020 8:55:03 GMT
We've been to several petting zoos with Girl and I'm not sure how I feel about them. On the one hand I'm glad she can get to know animals, how they feel and behave, on the other hand I feel it's sad for the poor creatures who have to undergo said petting. Some kids are chasing them and possibly hurting them. In the zoo we often visit, the animals can withdraw to a fenced off area and an indoor area so I feel better about that, but the one we went to last time had no such possibilities.
What are your thoughts?
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Post by tangent on Sept 22, 2020 10:06:22 GMT
I'm not in favour of harassing animals. But if they can withdraw to solitude then I'm happy to see them available for children to touch.
ETA: Why limit this to animals? Why not have a petting zoo of humans?
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Post by JoeP on Sept 23, 2020 11:37:59 GMT
Some animals do very well with petting, but they do need to be able to withdraw - and if there's any danger of children chasing or harassing them (which there always is!) then there have to be staff able to intervene.
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Post by Moose on Sept 24, 2020 3:15:39 GMT
As long as the animals CAN resist if they want to then no problem. If they are being chased and harassed though, that is a problem. I wonder why the people running the place do not do something about that. Also, what sort of animals are we talking about?
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Post by Mari on Sept 24, 2020 6:28:10 GMT
Most petting zoos here aren't supervised. The children are the responsibility of the parents. Where we were last Saturday a kid was chasing chicks, but the grandparent present just sat there, not saying anything. This one also held donkeys, but there was no mention of the fact that they can bite. Not a very good petting zoo.
Moose, most petting zoos contain farm animals like sheep and goats, bunnies and the occasional chicken or pig. If we go to the tiergarten (zoo), they also have alpacas, deer,cows,guinea pigs, wallabies and groundhogs for petting, but it's more like they laid out paths through the territories of those animals where you're supposed to stay on the path and the animals can either come to you or don't. You can lure them with purchasable food of course. So far we've never managed to pet a wallaby. Most of the time they stay far away from the path.
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