Petting Zoos : For Tattytam

[bina]

sorry all but tattytam has waited patiently for info and i have sent three times and it doesnt go thru so...... no need for commenting ... just an info post:

Tattytam,

You weren’t very specific in your question so I will give lots of different info:

1. I’m in Israel, the petting zoo is part of Kiftzova amusement park, a park oriented for the baby until age 13 age group

2. we have goats, rabbits, donkeys (no riding on them due to insurance problems), alpacas, various types of chickens turkeys, ducks , swans, geese, a bottle fed porcupine, maras (patagonian cavia), emu, and maybe getting spotted deer males only group (rather like the thai samba deer), parakeets etc.

3. I am against keeping wild/exotic animals in a petting zoo; that’s what big regular zoos are for; but a few types of ‘wild’ animals fit in well, and we get some wild gazelles as orphan rescues, etc… w/permits from the authorities

4. petting zoos in israel are an institution, every kibbutz or moshav used to have one as and educational thing for children, then they went business style and most fell apart.

5. THERE IS NO MONEY IN THE ANIMAL BUSINESS UNLESS:

a. You raise a specific breed that people want

b. You do extra type things like pony rides/milking, arts and crafts, etc for additional small fee

c. U are the only one in the area and people are a ready market

d. You run an amusement park, bed and breakfast, hotel, coffee shop whatever, and the petting zoo is an additional attraction

e. You are able to get groups thru schools, scout groups, tourist whatever

THERE IS NO MONEY IN THE ANIMAL BUSINESS :

Animals eat, shit, screw and die i.e. as someone on a thread wrote : kin, kee, see, dtaai

When animals are healthy, everything is cheap, when an animal that is not expendable (such as pure breed goat) gets sick, all your year’s revenue can go for medical veterinary treatments and that is also dependant on if you can let a rabbit die or you rush it to the vet. I do a lot of my own vet stuff already (it comes w/experience and time) so save lots of money, and rabbits go quickly to Mother earth with buddhist compassion , not to the vet.

Food may or may not be costly

What to do w/the shit? In Israel a major legal problem believe it or not; we do composting and the orchards take it from us

Animals don’t keep office hours; goats give birth at 2 in the morning just when you come back from an evening out, donkeys open their gate just when some political figure is coming to visit and security is everywhere, the very expensive pair of pheasants get some strange disease after two weeks and just before the high tourist season and the cage stands empty…… etc etc etc … there is no vacation time when you have animals unless u have very cheap or free extra labour.

YOU HAVE TO REALLY LOVE ANAIMSL BUT NOT BE THE ‘SAVE THE WHALES’ TYPE CAUSE ANIMALS GET STOLEN, GET SICK AND DIE, KILL EACH OTHER BY ACCIDENT, ESCAPE, HAVE TO BE EUTHANIZED or not as my thai worker is against that), YOU HAVE TO SELL YOUR FAVORITE BUFFALO CAUSE U HAVE TOO MANY., YOUR MALE SHEEP ARE GOING TO THE ‘SHWARMA’ FACTORY, ETC….also, you can get zoonoses from your animals.

If you want any exotics, the veterinary becomes that more expensive, and you need permits for the endangered species (if you are the responsible conservation types not although not the fanatics)…

Monkeys though attractive are endangered and on the CITES lists; same as many types of tropical birds

I am against animal shows that do not demonstrate natural activities of the animals

I try to promote responsible animal management even when I give talks to the tourists, children etc…. my dogs are spayed; the male donkey is getting castrated this spring as part of my personal ‘donkey awareness’ (way too many stray donkeys in Israel that get abused etc); etc

We don’t have cages for the most part; we have yards based on optimal area per animal w/ more than one housing option for the animal, feeding stand, water source etc…this is for the ‘wild’ animals; the domestics are easier to deal with …..

I did mini courses thru the Jerusalem zoo ( a recognized by WAZAzoo ); they are always willing to help and advise me although there is an organization for petting zoos in Israel since its such a wide spread institution.

Some interesting sites:

http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~alistair/z/search.html

http://www.zoonet.org/

Electronic Zoo - NetVet Veterinary Resources – type this in google I don’t find the correct address in my favorites

http://www.panasiri.in.th a thai tourist site w/petting zoo that looks amazing

http://www.zoolex.org/

zoo designs and amazing web site w/links galore

AAPN.org - Asian Animal Protection Network - The Zoo Pages http://www.aapn.org/zoopage.html

I tried emailing the songkla zoo and the dusit zoo for a project I had to do; they never responded to me but maybe the emails were incorrect or changed….

There is someone who was raising samba deer for their horns, again, I sent him emails, he never responded (but this is Thailand so maybe he just couldn’t be bothered, although recently I couldn’t get in to the site) http://thaisambadeer.com/

Breeders of deer primariyly for traditional medicines. Located in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Khun Sombot Ungtrakul [email protected]

Hope this was helpful and not confusing,

Bina

I have pics in the gallery but not too many; I can send you in separate files if you want to see