Sedgwick County Zoo

This was our worst zoo experience to date. It deserves zero stars. We came here based on the reviews and I had to go back and re-read them to make sure we were at the correct place. We travel the country and visit zoos everywhere with our kids because we have one child who is very driven to become a Veterinarian. We do make a point to visit accredited zoos only because I personally struggle with the ethics of them. I’m pretty surprised this one is accredited and has won any awards with some of the horrendous staff and some of the clearly neglected areas. The poor gorillas area had piles Of wet, unchanged, feces and urine filled hay. All of the staff here were so clearly bothered when answering any sort of question (from questions about the animals to where is a specific exhibit). We watched the zoo keeper at the elephants continually spray one elephant with a hose between the eyes, which the elephant obviously did not like. Honestly they seem to lack so much knowledge about the animals it appeared they were making it up. One girl told us how she threatens kids on field trips and then called half the animals the wrong names. The overall theme and tone of the zoo by staff seem to have some sort of chip on their shoulder to not be like the other zoo type place nearby that they made the whole experience probably worse than the other place actually is. After looking at both websites, they both equally offer plenty of “animal encounters” for a large fee so I’m not sure how one is better than the other, when they both are clearly driven by the $. When we asked about where some of their animals came from, all of them were brought in from other zoos who were bred in captivity for human knowledge. The lady at the train station was absolutely atrocious and since the train is basically “customer service,” it appears their standards are insanely low. We would never come back and we most definitely will not. For a place that prides itself on education (the future is our children and they are HORRIBLE to kids), they lacked it everywhere. It was a hot day so there were very, very few animals out (not their fault). The few that were out and had a zoo keeper doing something acted so threatening to us and our kids if we even asked a question about the animals (except the bird guy- he was fantastic). Not only did it cost us over $100 to get in, it was another $85 to “feed” a giraffe (not too close bc they’re wild- eye roll, no, they’re not, they’re in captivity and have been incredibly stressed out by being brought to your zoo), “touch” a sting ray (again bred in captivity for human), and ride a train. I’m not opposed to the idea of education, hence our many visits. But when their education is a clear dig at the other place (their education for the large cats was about how white cats aren’t natural and are inbred, not about the actual cats themselves), and we’re told to pay to feed the giraffes but stand an arms length away and then if we want to touch any part of a giraffe (we live close to an accredited zoo that led the way on feeding giraffes and they do an incredible job of facilitating this for both the giraffes and the humans)we have to touch with 2 fingers a small patch of their dead skin/tale/bone from a lady who should not under any circumstances be working with kids or the public, I question the judgement of this “accredited zoo.” We probably could have visited the other place nearby and supported the same level of care.