Animal Haven Farm Zoo — Attraction in Town of Weyauwega

I visited Animal Haven zoo and noticed on a pretty hot and humid day that one of the bears(black/sunbear) had absolutely no water or shade to hide from the sun. The poor thing was panting and was so hot I literally watched it fall over on its side helpless. I was not the first one to notice this either, I was informed by another couple who were visiting the zoo and shared the same concern. Because I care and could not watch this poor bear suffer any longer I went inside the gift shop and asked the receptionist who is out watering the animals and expressed my concern about the bear. Now instead of receiving equal amounts of concern and empathy for the bear, the receptionist got very defensive with me and explained the bear got an ice cream cone last night(what does that have to do with anything)....and that the animals are getting watered.... When she decided to stop arguing with me and call for someone to water the bear, the worker who was responsible for providing water to the animals explained she watered the bear last night..... On a hot day and coming from someone who's had a farm growing up i don't care if you say the animals were watered LAST NIGHT. IT'S A NEW DAY AND ITS HOT. LAST NIGHT was how many hours ago?! None of the staff took any responsibility about the matter and would rather argue than show any remorse. Every animal should be given fresh water each morning and night and checked throughout the day especially when its hot out. When we noticed the bear it was already 1:00pm and its water dish was bone dry....there's no excuse. Now when I did say something they sent someone out to give the bear water and wouldn't you know that bear dove for it like it hadn't seen water in years. I love going to zoos and there are so many great zoos in Wisconsin that actually CARE about their animals and you can see that when you go, their animals look healthy and happy and their enclosures are beautiful, spacious, and natural. But when I came here to Animal Haven I didn't see that, and the additude from the workers justifies that. Animal Haven, more...

I've been to this small Zoo several times over several years and have seen many different sides to it. One thing you can always count on; don't say you "feel sorry for the animals" within earshot of either of the proprietors, or YOU'LL get an EARFULL in return! It IS a SMALL zoo, but in their defense, I have never seen deliberate mistreatment of ANY of their animals. Some enclosures (cages) may be a bit on the small side, but I wouldn't call them "crowded", "filthy", "unsafe", or any of the other flat out untrue terms used by some organizations trying to shut them down. Sure, it's not the San Diego Zoo, but these animals are NOT SUFFERING (I'll say it again) MISTREATMENT at the hands of the Owners! They have free choice food, water, shelter; and any number of workers and volunteers are constantly 'making the rounds' of the zoo checking "things" we don't even know about! We all know one of the organizations trying to shut them down is "A-Bit-Over-The-Top" to say the least, when it comes to the definition of the "treatment of animals" (If they had their way, we wouldn't even be able to MILK cows!). Let's just use some common sense (of which there seems to be a shortage, lately) and support our small-town entrepreneurs who, when all is said and done, REALLY ARE doing a GOOD JOB of running the ZOO. Until/unless you can do a better job of it--Keep Quiet!! & Just enjoy the animals the way they were intended...

The animals are clearly not taken care of here. I went today with my family and I was uncomfortable walking through this place. About halfway you see a buffalo that is in an extremely small space. It had nowhere to go and it was sitting in its own stool. There were also two birds who wouldn’t shut up it almost drove my mother who has dimensia insane. There were animals that had open cuts, and they were all filthy. Also the cages that they were in were rotting and rusting and were extremely small. There was an alligator that had a bucket of water to swim in, unbelievable. Towards the end of the visit I saw about 6 or 7 kangaroos all in one little shack. They looked cold and uncomfortable. The last thing I have to share is that there were about 5 tigers all together in extremely small spaces, they were disconnected and they were able to go to them but they were extremely slim. Also the “zookeeper” tried to get my uncle to go into the lion enclosure. He did while it was sleeping and he made him touch it. While lions are in the conversation I will mention that their inclosure is a small shack smaller than my bathroom. That is all I have to say about this disgusting place. I ask you all to please not go here as it is abusive to animals. PETA is however working to shut this place down which is fortunate. Stay safe and away from...