Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo — Attraction in West Virginia

attended boo at the zoo and sad to say I’m a bit disappointed. Lines were long which is to be expected but what we weren’t expecting was the parking situation seemed to be very unplanned, they had people parking in tough places which then led to very difficult times getting back out. To get in it was a minimum of $60 for two adults and 1 child which is practically what most zoos are these days but here’s the thing, we drove an hour and paid that price hyped up for “Halloween themes and lots of candy” well sorry but I’ve noticed a lot of kids got a lot and some not so much! I’ve noticed quite a few handing handfuls to some and just pieces to others which was disappointing for my 6 year old when she left with just enough to cover the bottom… Like I said to be brought in with all the hype and pay that price you’d expect to atleast leave with half a bag like others did. My point is it’s unfair and leaves kids with different messages. Back to my other point, these events are great but could’ve been better planned and I sure hope they will be in the future, Izzy’s lemonade workers had bad attitudes/par customer service took them 10 min to realize they even had a customer. The people directing traffic had bad attitudes could ask how to get out without them getting smart, we got directed to leave the same way we came in just to then almost get hit quite a few times because there was no “way out”.

Another point I wanted to make was yes there was Halloween themed stuff, but the employees I expected more from. I seen pictures of them dressed up and all involved but today they were not. They all seemed grumpy and not having fun let alone almost none dressed up.

Basically it was I paid to go to the zoo like a normal day had a difficult time getting in and even worse time trying to get out and then “trick or treated” by having to actively search for people handing out candy or find the “boo” in the boo at the zoo🙃 Last but not least enclosures need upgraded the animals do look sad.

Please don’t take my review harsh I hope this helps to upgrade the events

Very poor customer service and attitude for a place like this to block someone for giving a very honest and respectful review lol yall can gladly give me atleast a partial refund since I spent $100+ today!

Yep you got it hovatters is blocking people for leaving a review that isn’t 4+ stars 😂

!!!!Also make sure yall look up their animal abuse citations before yall visit and support such a business, stumbled upon those after my visit and wasn’t...

Literally follow the legal bare minimum it takes to keep these animals. It was horrible, animals obviously stressed with inappropriate sized enclosures and lack of proper enrichment, hides, shade cover, and just about every other aspect thinkable. Before I come off as a "free the animals" looney I want to say I love animals so much I studied zoo science and collection management. This facility offers deplorable enrichment to animals that offers them no benefit. Have you ever seen a tiger play with a Little Tykes toy? Me neither but I've seen one get about 20 feet from it. Also, plenty of species of social animals were housed alone, while solitary APEX PREDATORS were housed in groups with obvious aggression. The enclosure size seemed to be based on how many members of a species can we fit in x cubic feet, while others are how many acres can we give this gibbon. Gator alley was just as bad. Sure they had a fair amount of space and ample water, but no filtration system. They were so covered in algae it was disgusting. Now, algae in a psuedoswamp setting is fine, but there was an inch thick layer that by no means was helping the animals. Saw a capuchin eating literal garbage and a patas monkey eating sticks from the substrate, which could be avoided by having and appropriate substrate. One of their top gimmicks is that you can feed every animal, and tell you only give aninals the appropriate food because the wrong one could literally kill them, but dont enforce this even a little. You can give any animal any food and no one will stop you. Even saw a little girl climb in the enclosure with ease, also wondered how the animals never got out because I know most of them can jump higher than a four foot fence. Know that I will never be back, pay another cent, or reccomend this place to anyone except someone who can shut it down. DO MORE THAN THE BARE MINIMUM TO ANIMALS! Get a accrediadation from the aza, zaa, or similar institutions. Never heard of them? No surprise. It's the association of zoos and aquariums and they help maintain animal collections worldwide to better wildlife populations and not just make...

Had a fun time, although there were some things that stood out. The informational sighs were very well done, and I’d say about half of the enclosures were in good shape, but there were many cages/pens that need some work (such as the hyenas, grizzly bear, lions, jaguars, and the 2 snakes and monkey inside the store). There were some enclosures that were well done, such as the elk/bison, zebra, emu/rhea/watsui, cavy, goats, alligators, elands, and llamas. Another issue we noticed frequently was the lack of animal care. Many of the pens had poop and sometime trash near the edges, and numerous animals had medical issues. The warthog and olive baboon looked like they had prolapsed behinds, one ostrich had a chunk of feathers gone, the wolves and jaguars were pacing back and forth, the tortoises are starting to get pyramidal scutes, and the rattlesnake and boa inside both had shedding and poop all over their enclosure. Many of the animals could use more shade over their pens, and we noticed that many did not have water access (at least in sight) and seemed overheated (90 degrees in July). Finally, there were eggs all over the ostrich pen, which was puzzling.

Overall, we enjoyed our time here, but would like to see improvement to...