What is the worst state for zoos? U.S.A edition.

Girafarig said:
.....How the heck do I know something about this zoo if a veteran of this website doesn’t have a single clue what the zoo is?
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@birdsandbats was making a joke. The name of the zoo in Oglebay Park is Good Zoo, and rather than saying the Good Zoo was "good" you said it was decent.

Girafarig said:
I’m just trying to compile this list for fun plus out of the states with fewer populations which one has the least or worst zoos. Let’s say we have a state with 1 zoo (or so called “zoo”). Then the purpose of this is to gather a state with also 1 zoo and see which is better. Now to the point, every zoo is different and I agree with that. In fact I think it might be impossible to rank the “worst” zoo. But people can figure out what a bad zoo, an average zoo, and a good zoo are and if a state has a better “bad” zoo ratio than another, then it’s worse. I also come from the amusement park community who like ranking roller coasters and amusement parks. (which a amusement park YouTuber did the same exact concept as me except with roller coasters.)
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Alright. I still don't understand what you're hoping to achieve or learn with this or how this ratio system is going to actually work in practice, but thanks for taking the time to respond.

For a bit of context, I don't understand "ranking" zoos (or anything, really) as a general concept, as I never think the rankings make much sense and I doubt people's abilities to judge the quality of zoos objectively. I've said as much a few times over the years. I didn't mean any ill will, I was just trying to understand what you were trying to do and why you thought it was worthwhile.
 
Girafarig said:
Ok, some of Maine‘s zoos look absolutely disgusting. I might put Maine above Vermont but York’s doesn’t seem too bad...
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York is pretty nice, I used to go a lot while vacationing in Maine. In the state you also have Dew Haven which looks pretty gross but I've never been and Maine wildlife park which actually seems to be quite good but again I've never been there.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
@birdsandbats was making a joke. The name of the zoo in Oglebay Park is Good Zoo, and rather than saying the Good Zoo was "good" you said it was decent.




Alright. I still don't understand what you're hoping to achieve or learn with this or how this ratio system is going to actually work in practice, but thanks for taking the time to respond.

For a bit of context, I don't understand "ranking" zoos (or anything, really) as a general concept, as I never think the rankings make much sense and I doubt people's abilities to judge the quality of zoos objectively. I've said as much a few times over the years. I didn't mean any ill will, I was just trying to understand what you were trying to do and why you thought it was worthwhile.
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Yeah I guess ranking zoos sometimes doesn’t make sense. If your favorite zoo is ranked low or ranked high then I understand it might not makes sense. Sometimes you can’t trust people to rank zoos due to their status or even just because they make stuff up sometimes. Sometimes they use unreliable sources like Wikipedia (take that back Wikipedia is more reliable than other sources). I don’t know really how I can make this understandable. I’ve been lurking on zoochat without an account for about a year and people like you have been people I look up to. I don’t even care if it’s criticism. Thanks for responding and that’s all.

-Girafarig

















ALSO HOW DID I NOT GET THAT.
 
Dyl0526 said:
York is pretty nice, I used to go a lot while vacationing in Maine. In the state you also have Dew Haven which looks pretty gross but I've never been and Maine wildlife park which actually seems to be quite good but again I've never been there.
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EDIT: this glitched I’m sorry but just saying thanks and dew plus mwp looked bad from the google photo.
 
Girafarig said:
EDIT: this glitched I’m sorry but just saying thanks and dew plus mwp looked bad from the google photo.
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Have you gotten a chance to look at the gallery for MWP, it looks beautiful. I might need to try and get up there if covid ever gets better
 
Idaho also has the Peregrine Fund Center for Birds of Prey, along with the others mentioned. I don't think Idaho belongs on the worst list.
 
There's an fundamental question to this: what's worse - a state without any zoos or a state with only one or a few zoos of at best mediocre quality? From an animal welfare pov, the first might be the better option.
There have been many discussions about the aspect of zoo rating and ranking (Bronx vs. San Diego as one major example). Given the complexity of the matter, it does not surprise many of them resulted in arguments.
Coelacanth18 said:
For a bit of context, I don't understand "ranking" zoos (or anything, really) as a general concept, as I never think the rankings make much sense and I doubt people's abilities to judge the quality of zoos objectively. I've said as much a few times over the years.
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I second that. But do you remember @Coelacanth18 when both of us mused about the general lack of good zoos in Wisconsin, based on snowleopard's reports? ^^ Maybe Wisconsin might be the worst US state for zoos in general?
 
Batto said:
I second that. But do you remember @Coelacanth18 when both of us mused about the general lack of good zoos in Wisconsin, based on snowleopard's reports? ^^ Maybe Wisconsin might be the worst US state for zoos in general?
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Not sure I would say that - Wisconsin ranks 4th for number of zoos in a state and while the majority are bad there are lots of great ones here as well.
 
Batto said:
There's an fundamental question to this: what's worse - a state without any zoos or a state with only one or a few zoos of at best mediocre quality? From an animal welfare pov, the first might be the better option.
There have been many discussions about the aspect of zoo rating and ranking (Bronx vs. San Diego as one major example). Given the complexity of the matter, it does not surprise many of them resulted in arguments.
I second that. But do you remember @Coelacanth18 when both of us mused about the general lack of good zoos in Wisconsin, based on snowleopard's reports? ^^ Maybe Wisconsin might be the worst US state for zoos in general?
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You’ve made a good point and I’ve seen Wisconsin’s lack of quality zoos. And I believe that if you had a collection of crappy zoos, the one with 0 zoos would be best for welfare. But so far we’ve had only 1 state close to that with Maine. Maine though is safe (for now) as it has 2 redeeming qualities. (York is supposed to be a fine zoo and Maine is supposed to be a great zoo) I’m going to look further at Wisconsin and see what they have.
 
While I believe Wisconsin has its good zoos (Milwaukee County Zoo) and it’s bad (Jo-Don Farms), I’ve come to the decision that Wisconsin has a higher ratio of “bad” zoos. But would that mean Wisconsin is the worst? It depends and I might have to think about this but I think this would be the same case as some other states. Surely I bet California has more good zoos then bad?
 
Girafarig said:
While I believe Wisconsin has its good zoos (Milwaukee County Zoo) and it’s bad (Jo-Don Farms), I’ve come to the decision that Wisconsin has a higher ratio of “bad” zoos. But would that mean Wisconsin is the worst? It depends and I might have to think about this but I think this would be the same case as some other states. Surely I bet California has more good zoos then bad?
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California, Texas, and Florida are other states I would look at that potentially have more bad zoos than good.
 
birdsandbats said:
while the majority are bad there are lots of great ones here as well.
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Which are? Any you would honestly recommend to an international zoo fan who's seen his fair share of major zoos?

In my case, the only facility in Wisconsin that I can think of to be of relevance to me would be MToxins Venom Lab (for personal reasons...).
 
birdsandbats said:
California, Texas, and Florida are other states I would look at that potentially have more bad zoos than good.
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The thing is with high population states is that they have usually a niche to them. Florida is a vacation hotspot. New York is... well NY. But these states have boosted tourism and are usually full of bootleg or rip-off businesses. For example, costumed characters on Times Square.

Business from these states are satisfied with the boosted tourism as it earns them bucks but how do you get tourism? You have to make a destination that families or people in general will go to. And what better place then a zoo.
 
Batto said:
Which are? Any you would honestly recommend to an international zoo fan who's seen his fair share of major zoos?

In my case, the only facility in Wisconsin that I can think of to be of relevance to me would be MToxins Venom Lab (for personal reasons...).
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Wisconsin County, Racine, and Henry Villas are all zoos that come to mind. For me at least.
EDIT: oops I’m too full of Wisconsin. Milwaukee
 
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