After visiting Discover Deadly in Dunsborough and learning that many of the animals came from Armadale Reptile & Wildlife Centre, I was keen to return here after many years. We arrived in time to handle one of the snakes (and also a bobtail, which was thrilling). The staff member was kind enough to take us around as he fed the snakes, though he didn't know any of their names or seem very close to any of them. We learned a lot of cool things, but the visit was soured when he joyfully encouraged us to visit the birds because one of them loved women and would be all over my wife and I.
We found Rori the Corella to be very charming, but when I tried to move him he bit me very hard. I went to call for a first aid kit, and the staff member at reception tried to push past me to see which bird was being a nuisance. When I interrupted her, she did not seem particularly concerned that I was dripping blood. She told me to go wash my hands, and when I requested some tissues to avoid leaving a trail across the floor she paused and mused that that would be a good idea, and had to think about whether she had any. When I had washed my bleeding hands to the best of my ability (while my wife cleaned the blood off the sink and taps), I wasn't able to stop the bleeding with pressure but waited at reception while the staff member kept writing what looked like a receipt for several more seconds. Eventually she finished, took two bandaids out, and then declined to put on gloves or wash her hands before or after applying them. (She told me it was because she was "old school".) She then lectured me on the safer ways to handle a bird, and chided me for offering my fingers to him which were like "red flags to a bull". I left feeling told off and hurting. It's been a month now, and despite my careful first aid the scar tissue is still very dense and painful, and because it's on the joint of my finger I touch it every day.
I don't want to be unkind, but I wish that the initial staff member had told us that while Rory was charming, he might bite if we tried to remove him. I wish we'd been taught how to handle him safely. I wish that when I called out for the first aid kit, I wish there had been an effective and immediate first aid response following safer healthcare protocols. And I wish I had been validated instead of told off for what had happened.
I loved the animals there, but I won't...
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