So, it started out great - I was really enjoying myself; they had great exhibits with a range of fish and sea creatures. However, then I saw the baby alligators. There were about 5 of them in a very small tank in the middle of the room. Something about the way they looked just made me feel quite sad. The only other alligator in the aquarium was a fully grown, leucistic (white) alligator. So it made me wonder - what happens when the baby alligators are fully grown? Will they create a new enclosure for them? Or release them to the wild?

I decided to ask a couple of staff members standing around. They seemed a little bit awkward as they explained, in a rather roundabout fashion, that once the alligators become larger, the aquarium sells them to farms so they can be killed for their meat and skin (to make wallets and bags etc). This was very disturbing to hear, especially having just days ago seen the wild alligators thriving at Honey Island swamp. I understand that farming and killing alligators for their meat and skin is a big business in Louisiana, but for a zoo to partake in this? Zoos/aquariums are supposed to exist for education and conservation purposes. If alligators are to be killed for their meat and skin, they should at least be given a chance to escape and survive in the wild. Not to be LITERALLY bred in captivity, only to be sold off for execution. And CERTAINLY not by an aquarium.

The staff member tried to justify this to me by insisting that if these alligators were now released into the wild, they would not know how to hunt or survive, as they have been bred in captivity. Isn't that just case in point? The alternatives are plain: either don't raise baby alligators in the aquarium, or if you do and they're deemed unable to survive out in the wild, give them to an animal sanctuary.

The thought of these poor baby alligators having a miserable beginning to their existence - not getting to breathe fresh air, sitting in a tiny glass case, with humans sticking their faces up to and tapping on the glass - only to be shipped off to be butchered, makes me very, very sad indeed.

To add insult to injury, the aquarium has a number of ironic and deeply hypocritical messages posted throughout - such as "Be a friend to fish & sea turtles! Dropping coins, wrappers, snacks, and objects in the water can cause serious harm to marine life." Perhaps they might also consider the act of butchering animals to cause serious harm to marine life???

Then there's the Red-Tailed Hawk exhibit, which has a sign explaining that the hawk is only here because she had been shot several years ago and can no longer fly. Next to a photo of an x-ray showing her broken wing, it says, "She recovered at the LSU Wildlife and Rehabilitation Center but was deemed non-releasable. She has had a home at Audubon ever since." This rather sneakily suggests to the public that the aquarium cares about animal rehabilitation, and that it will not keep an animal in captivity if it is cruel to do so. Can you imagine if they had honest signage by the baby alligators' exhibit? And the outrage it would cause?

The final insult was in the form of the quote on the final wall of the aquarium, just as you make your way to the gift shop. "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - a quote by Jane Goodall, the famous biologist who has devoted her life to the protection of chimpanzees. Unfortunately, the aquarium doesn't even have any kind of feedback form (or indeed an email address) for me to raise this complaint with them directly, hence why I'm having to take it to Google Reviews instead. It leaves me with the impression that the only difference Audubon Aquarium wishes to make is to get a little bit more profit, even at the brutal expense of the animals they supposedly care for.