Newport Discovery Zoo — Attraction in Newport

This place has potential but unfortunately shows lack of care for the animals. Where do I begin…

Birds that were different species were fighting and obviously shouldn’t have been placed together (this was for the hour or two that I was there and they were not separated).

The place is dirty. I own and keep many animals, including livestock, so I have plenty of experience in that department. In the back room where the tortoises were walking around there were some mice-type critters in cages. One of the critters was dead and had been there decaying for a while. The cages were also inadequate and dirty in there too.

One bearcat/binturong is always on “time out” in the wooden cage which leads me to believe that what is being told to people is not true and that the cage is it’s actual enclosure.

I asked about one of the fennec foxes which was limping and in obvious pain. The response I got was that it was “just being difficult and acting to be dramatic”. My issue here was the response. It is clear to see when an animal is in pain and visibly unhappy, especially from someone who has extensive experience with animals. Openness and honesty goes a long way. I think sometimes they don’t realize some of their visitors are more knowledgeable about animals than the average person.

I am not one to leave reviews but WOULD NOT RECOMMEND this place until there is significant improvement. Furthermore it appears that the owner seems to be defensive based on the other reviews. As an animal owner I would be very concerned supporting businesses with people like this, as there is always room to improve husbandry especially as research comes out.

I get it, there are sometimes people who complain about everything no matter what you do. However, this is not the case here.

I’d like to add giving proper care and enrichment is a money saver in the long term because health issues will be less frequent and rehabilitation is quicker. It would be interesting to see how often these animals are vet-checked as that would provide some reassurance. I’d rather support a place with fewer animals that are kept correctly than a place with more animals to see.

As for the parrots I hope their lack of feathers was from being rescued and not caused by the stress of being in an environment like that. Also the chinchillas were pretty over-heated as it was a warm day. These are critters that are normally kept in a/c controlled environments as I have some of my own. Their diet they are feeding is not super great as carrots are high in sugar and lettuce isn’t good all the time (which they seem to get everyday).

I have been there a couple times to ensure it wasn’t just a really off day but I was surprised to find that the conditions that I saw seem to be the norm.

I am honestly not sure why the reviews are so high but can assume one of two things… the first is that some of the visitors are not experienced with animals and don’t know any better about proper animal husbandry. The second is people leaving reviews are some that are tied to the company and trying to boost...

I have a lot to say here. I don't understand all of the good reviews for this place.. I was very excited to see some cute rescue animals but the state they were in just left my partner and I feeling very uncomfortable and sad. The place is very crowded and many of the animals looked very stressed. I thought some of that could be because of whatever pasts they'd been rescued from but the more I looked, the worse I felt.

The bats were housed in 2-3ft tall cages (maybe 2'tall by 4'long or so) The bird cages were small and some were very crowded

Ostrich(or emu, I didnt get super close) housed in a crowded area with the kangaroos, a llama and a bunch of others. It looked so crowded and stuffy in there, only made worse when people entered as well. I've been to petting zoos but never one with so many animals crowded around so badly.

Axolotl tank so dirty I could hardly see the axolotl a few inches away I dont know much about their husbandry but that just felt like another red flag when paired with everything else.

One of the snakes in the reptile room looked straight up dead. I dont know for sure but it was out in the open and completely unresponsive. In my experience snakes will at least tongue flick or something. Its eyes didn't look right.

They also had two cobras and a rattlesnake, all of which also just didn't look right to me. I'm not an expert but I've seen many well kept reptile habitats and while I cant pinpoint the exact issue, these ones just felt so sad and lethargic. Some snakes don't move much but the whole atmosphere made me feel very uncomfortable.

That's not even mentioning the incubator of baby chicks near the front door. Some looked very sickly and were being run over and injured by the stronger ones. They were very young and young chicks not surviving the first few days just happens sometimes. But watching the stronger ones walk over the ones that could hardly stand just felt like an emphasis on what already felt like an over-crowded and depressing situation for many of the animals I saw today.

Please do not support this business until they show some improvement in their animal husbandry. Rescues or not, all of these animals deserve the space to thrive. If they do not have the space, they should not have so many animals. The health and safety of these animals should be number one priority.

I'd have been much happier to pay to see healthy, thriving creatures than the mess...

I went here a year ago, and let me tell you why you shouldn't go here.

It was the middle of October of last year. Cloudy, with a storm rolling in from the ocean. As my mother and I crossed the great Newport Bridge to the south, we heard of a zoo, so we thought, let's go see this zoo. Thus, our unwise decision was made, and we went across the golden bridge.

As we turned to the left to the road to lead us there, we were met by a statue of a Mosasaur, and that was our warning, a warning to stay out or suffer the consequences. We chose the latter, and thus, the horror would begin.

We turned to the right and saw an old broken sign that read Aquarium Village. We drove by and passed a shop with a pirate statue in the front. But it was no ordinary pirate. It was a headless pirate covered in mold. Where his head was, no one would know.

As we turned to the right, we entered an alleyway filled with ducks and chickens—yes, ducks and chickens. We carefully drove by, careful not to crush them. But thinking about it now, we probably should have had to end their cursed lives. By this time, it began to rain.

The walls of the buildings were faintly painted. What was once colorful fish and sea was now stained, faded, and distorted. Coming out from one of the buildings was a man, a man whose eyes were sunken in and staring out into the nothingness like a ghost.

As we pressed on, we saw more of these ghosts sitting with the ducks and chickens. As our car drove past them, they paid us no mind, and that's because they didn't realize we were even there as if we too were ghosts to them.

As we turned the corner, to our horror, we saw caged animals being taken to a storage shed. This storage shed was amongst many in the village, and each perhaps contained an animal, a caged animal. To be sealed away and to never see daylight again. I will tell you where the souls of those people went. They went into those animals, and their bodies were taken over by the drugs they took. Forever caged as an animal.

In the middle of the street, we saw a skateboard boy boarding around a drain pipe, circling it like a buzzard, looking for his next meal.

As we drove by, he looked up at us with his red, swollen eyes and gave us a hiss, a hiss to say, 'This is my meal.' And so we press on.

We turned to the left to avoid the boy and his drain pipe and entered an abandoned village. The only life there was...