Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park — Attraction in Middlebury

We absolutely love this place.

Admission includes a horse-drawn wagon ride through pastures where larger animals roam. Upon paying (they used to prefer cash, but the website says they accept cards now), you're given a name tag to stick on your shirt. Someone will find you when the wagon's ready for your family. Every passenger is given a large pan of feed. As the wagon rolls through the fields, an eclectic variety of animals wander up to the wagon's railing and will readily eat pellets out of your hand. They're enthusiastic but patient and don't seem to get pushy or aggressive while vying for their share of the treats.

Something special about this park is the amount of freedom entrusted to visitors. You're able to enter many of the fenced in animal enclosures for gentle, hands-on experiences with the animals. There are low sided, child-accessible spaces containing rabbits and baby ducks for your little ones to cuddle with your guidance.

The animals seem easy-going, accustomed to people and being touched and handled.

My 5-year-old grandson's hands-down favorite at the park is the aviary. It's filled with colorful parakeets, doves, finches, and other beautiful small birds. Sit quietly and they may come sit with you! If it's not too hot, it's a lovely place to rest for a bit.

For an additional couple of dollars, your child can ride a small (up to ~60lbs) or larger pony. A worker leads the pony twice around a long fence line. It's a rather short ride, but it's inexpensive and for most young children it's plenty long enough. (They do not have helmets available.)

You can purchase small baggies of cereal and bowls of carrots to feed the animals.

The bathrooms are a couple of porta-potties but there is a washing station with running water and soap.

There are picnic tables and picnickers are welcome, but they don't sell any food or drink so you'll need to...

First off i want to say i have no intention of directly bashing this place. My daughter and i had fun. The people who ran it seemed kind. There was more exotic and regional animals to see, feed , and touch than imaginable. This is a neat place. My concern was the living condition and treatment of the animals themselves. The horse drawn buggy ride was through acres of trampled, barely shaded grass areas, way too packed for the animals. The animals eagerness to eat from the feed given to us led me to believe they may also not be fed much. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Foxes and monkeys in small cages. A miniature horse that was tied tightly to its stall, barely able to move its head (for i assume hours and hours a day) Other animals in similar cramped pens or tied up tightly, too restrained. There was a beautiful almost 7 foot horse that had almost no room to move at all in a small barn...it walked in tight circles, looking panicked. Also safety...some of the camels, ostriches and bulls were aggressive. The bulls horns were HUGE and could've easily hurt my 4 year old. Signs up at the farm say, "not responsible if you get hurt" and for good reason! Overall these and other low conditions made me feel that the ownership might care more about quantity of creatures over quality of their care. Made me kinda sick to my stomach! Its hard to watch small, cute creatures unable to move freely or happily as they sit for hours in the hot sun. I hope they take better care of the amazing aray of animals...

I don’t usually write reviews but I thought this was needed. The staff is friendly and the animals are very cool to see, however the conditions the animals live in are horrible. Some are in small cages and have no shade for when it’s hot out. The water bowls of the animals are green or brown. On the wagon ride there was a deer who had fist sized wounds on its neck that looks extremely painful yet nothing was done about it. There’s pins for the bunnies and chicks (very small pins) and it’s free roam to pick them up, regardless of age and how well a child can actually handle a small, fragile animal. Many kids were dropping the animals or grabbing them wrong- although it’s not the establishments fault, it would be best to leave the poor things be. Another thing to be noted is that the birds have VERY small spaces and are missing feathers and clearly in distress. There are horses that are working a carousel like thing ALL DAY and just go in circles. There’s no room for them to even lay down. Another horse was pulling the small train for kids but was parked in a very small little barn like thing before taking more kids- again no room to sit. Overall this place needs to heavily work on their animal conditions and providing the animals with necessary space before letting hundreds of people torture the animals further. This was...