Cook Play Love: The Zoo that wasn't really a zoo

Friday, November 12, 2010

The Zoo that wasn't really a zoo

When we were in Springfield, we also went to this place called the Lupa Zoo. I knew from reading online that it wasn't really a zoo, but a private wildlife preservation farm. They claim to have 500 species, though I know we didn't see that any. I thought it would be a good place to visit, without all the trappings (read: merry go round) of a normal zoo, so Oliver could see lots of animals. It was, uhm, interesting, and a little sad. I might be naive, but I like to think of zoos in general as promoting wildlife awareness, and not as using animals to make a buck. I think the intentions of this place were probably good, but the execution just came off wrong. It didn't help that the day had turned cold and windy, but when we first arrived, we were the only people there. Quite different from our other crowded zoo experiences this summer! A bit later, we did see one other family, but that's it. So imagine cold, windy day, deserted zoo . . . I just had images of When Animals Attack running through my head the whole time. The part that made me saddest was that they had feeding stations at many of the pens. Where you could buy a bag of snacks for $2 and pour it through this pvc pipe shoot that ended up in the animals bowls on the other side of the fence. Great way to get to see the animal up close, but you'd have to have a fortune in dollar bills with you to buy snacks for the whole place, and choosing one animal over another felt wrong. Apparently, the place used to be free, and they raised all their money this way, but now they charge entry as well. Anyway, it felt sad and pathetic, seeing all the animals begging for food as you walked by.

Nee-Nee and Oliver staring down the giraffe. Nee-Nee gave Oliver her headband, because his horrible mother didn't bring a coat or hat (the forecast said sunny and he had layers on!!).