Do You Pet Animals At Your Local Zoo?

Dan said:
Oh I agree, too. First and foremost because of the reason mentioned by Taun.

That nonwithstanding, I suppose I would actually love to be able to pet a big predator like a lion or a tiger. But purely for selfish reasons and it is nothing that I can intellectually justify in any way.
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Looks like we need to have another disagreement, as were agreeing to too much! :p

I wouldn't want to be responsible for a sick animal, so refrain from touching unless permission has been given.
 
taun said:
Looks like we need to have another disagreement, as were agreeing to too much! :p

I wouldn't want to be responsible for a sick animal, so refrain from touching unless permission has been given.
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Yeah, really! Especially since you are one of my favorite enemies here at ZooChat :):D;)
 
KEEPER said:
Sorry but I don't understand why much people "needs" to pet zoo animals, what "benefit" is achieved with this, touching is like to pet a dog, cat or any other domestic/farm animal to us, and for the animals sometimes can be very stressful, do not think?
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As I said in my earlier post, any animal I touch/stroke has the ability to move away if it chooses to. They would do so if they found the experience stressful. Instead, they often show obvious signs of enjoying it (tapirs and suids especially).
I find these days that a lot of people, even if they like looking at animals, regard them as 'untouchable' because they think that if they touch an animal they'll catch fleas and at least 10 different deadly viruses! This is a result of our urbanised, sanitized, existence - so separated from Nature that we think we're doing animals a favour by not coming in contact with them.
 
In the past when I've been to African Lion Safari, I've petted giraffe, Common Eland, Fallow Deer, zebra (still have all my fingers!), the typical farm animals at the petting zoo, and Asian Elephants at the show.

Toronto Zoo, aside from the farm animals, I petted a Indian Hornbill that was being held by the keeper. He encourages people to pet her as she does love the attention.
 
Let me take this thread slightly off-topic for a while. I don´t think that snowleopard will mind. And in a way it is not THAT off-topic, anyway.

What do you all think about that Buddhist Temple in Thailand featured on tv-channel Animal Planet? I was totally charmed by the concept at first, but then all those videos kept popping up on YouTube and I sort of lost faith...

The tigers being beaten on the heads with sticks by the monks when they did not "behave" in front of the Euro-American tourist crowd going crazy with their cameras?

Any thoughts?
 
Too risky IMO, it just seems like such a dangerous idea. And the feed them cooked meat so "they don't associate blood with food"... What the hell's that about?
 
Good point, ashely-h! And one that fooled me for a while in my admittedly amateurish innocense...

But any other views? Is this just a clever tourist trap and nothing more?

****ing hell (this phrase will be automatically censored by the site, I know..), but I cannot help but writing it... I am a bit discouraged by this possible scam - I have always entertained the perhaps naive notion of Buddhists having a pretty good record when it comes to animal welfare. Perhaps more so than in any other human culture. But I might be terribly wrong, of course.
 
I imagine the buddhism card helps into a false sense of security that they're do gooders, when in actual fact if a zoo or circus kept tigers chained like that then there'd be hell to pay.
 
Yeah... more good points of yours! I have not been able to watch The Animal Channel for a couple of years. What happended to the proposed new and better enclosures? Did the Thai Army help as was suggested? What is the state of the place, right now? Anybody who knows?

And again: was it all a scam or something serious?
 
I couldn't tell you, but I remember seeing that about the new enclosures too. Basically circus/Sigfried and Roy thing really by the seems of it. Hey, we're agreeing on something too... What's going on?! :p
 
On another side note, when I visited Berlin Zoo for the second time some six or seven years ago, I watched a female keeper pet the one and only hyena in that pretty awful Carnivore House of the zoo. The animal seemed quite content to go on sleeping in his or her bare prison cell and looked unwilling to go out into the the not so much more exciting outdoor cage.

Not a pretty sight from any point of view, just a memory of mine that I wanted to share.
 
I don't remember seeing any hyaenas in Berlin. Must have died or I missed it.
 
ashley-h said:
I couldn't tell you, but I remember seeing that about the new enclosures too. Basically circus/Sigfried and Roy thing really by the seems of it. Hey, we're agreeing on something too... What's going on?! :p
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Ah... but you are, of course, another one of my "favorite enimies" here on the site!

Always glad to exchange views with "you chaps!!" ;)
 
I've actually been bitten on the hand by an adult zebra before(hurt like a bitch)

I was about 5 and I was at some roadside zoo, I could'nt read the sign about no touching the animals (There was no second barrier) so I walked right up and started to pet the zebra

I was looking away and all of the sudden it bit my hand
 
Well, most zoos strictly ban petting animals. And I can understand it. Both for safety of visitors and for health of animals - you may know how to care for a deer, but others don't.

But some of us still sneak a nice clump of grass or leafy branch when an ibex or mangabey really, really asks... ;)

Actually, I would like more contact with animals (like 99.9% of visitors). Hopefuly, zoos will introduce more chances for contacct with animals, like it was a norm 100 years ago.
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
I've actually been bitten on the hand by an adult zebra before(hurt like a bitch)

I was about 5 and I was at some roadside zoo, I could'nt read the sign about no touching the animals (There was no second barrier) so I walked right up and started to pet the zebra

I was looking away and all of the sudden it bit my hand
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They say it is safe to pet animals in children's zoos, but at Exmoor they used to have a goat pen which you were allowed to enter. Unfortunately, one of the goats took a dislike to me and I was butted four or five times. It hurts like hell! In the end, my dad had to come in and rescue me (I was only about 9).
 
Jurek7 said:
Well, most zoos strictly ban petting animals. And I can understand it. Both for safety of visitors and for health of animals - you may know how to care for a deer, but others don't.

But some of us still sneak a nice clump of grass or leafy branch when an ibex or mangabey really, really asks... ;)

Actually, I would like more contact with animals (like 99.9% of visitors). Hopefuly, zoos will introduce more chances for contacct with animals, like it was a norm 100 years ago.
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I'd like to see more supervised feeding, could create more of an interest in the animals.
 
I do feel a bit unhappy seeing people reaching out to touch animals in zoos; one example I can think of immediately is the very low walled penguin enclosure at Sewerby Park, it is very easy to touch the birds and many people do. I wouldn't do so because I could see the penguins aren't really too happy about it.

That said, I did have a sly stroke of a very friendly Okapi at London, it seemed quite appreciative of it. I guess that sounds very hypocritical, which I guess it is, but it would've taken more self restraint than I have to throw away such an oppurtunity.
 
My list is

Black Rhino
South American Tapir
Musk Ox
Persian Leopard
Okapi
Przewalski's Horse
Ring-tailed Lemur
Lowland Anoa
Giraffe
Raccoon


In each case the animal initiated the contact (apart from the leopard, but that was only 2 days old).

The musk ox and horses at Chester seemed to actively seek me out.

In the case of the raccoon I did a very silly thing and put my hand on the wire while photographing something in the next enclosure; i.e. not paying attention to what was in the enclosure my hand was against. Luckily the raccoon seemed quite happy to place its paw on my finger for a short while and then go away.

The lemur came to sit on my knee in Cricket's walk-through.
 
ive petted a tapir at the cotswold wildlife park, with griggs, what was happnin, they were eatin brows and the keeper was handing them out and we fed a tapir and petted it!
 
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