Big Run Wolf Ranch — Hotel in Lockport

My 12 year old granddaughter and I thought attending Big Run Wolf Ranch's open house would be a great way to spend the day. Instead, we both left feeling angered, disgusted and saddened. I preface my comments by saying I have worked in the animal welfare field for 32 years and am very knowledgeable about animal behavior and body language. I was first appalled by the small cages the animals were housed in with no attempt whatsover to even try to mimic their natural habitat. Rather than grass, their footing was stones. In addition, the wolves were obviously very stressed as demonstrated by their continual pacing and repetitive circling their enclosures. During the "educational" presentation, it was very disheartening to learn that they purposely breed the wolves so that they can sell the pups to other organizations. Pups are weaned from their mothers at only 13 days of age and bottle fed so they can be humanized. They admit it is traumatic for the mothers, but "they get over it". A four month old pup was brought out during their presentation so that everyone could pet her. She was clearly very stressed and fearful as demonstrated by her body language, but "the show must go on", so she was dragged and forced to interact with a crowd full of noisey children even though she pulled back with tail tucked to avoid their advances. The wolf park representative responded to my email voicing my concern saying that "she was afraid of the strollers". Even if that was the case, the handler should've explained to the visitors that she was nervous and that spectators would only be able to watch her instead of petting her. We left feeling that rather than watching an educational demonstration, we had just witnessed a carnival side show where there was little regard for the well-being of...

Theresa was so kind and was able to squeeze me in for a private tour for a school project of mine which I deeply appreciated! She spent extra time on a typical day off for them showing me each and every one of their animals, even letting me pet some of them like their beautiful wolf Canuck or their cute albino skunk named Casper! Immediately when I walked in I was greeted by their adorable and vocal cougar named Charlie, and as we moved from one animal to the next Theresa so kindly explained to me how each animal was rescued or taken in and all about their lives at the refuge. They were all surely well taken care of with clean cages and places to climb, and I even got to peak at their huge food supply where they prepare feedings for all the animals with the diets they require. I was excited to hear they are actively working on expanding their property further back so the animals have more space! It was quite an amazing experience. I had no idea all these animals were located so close to where I grew up, but I will surely be going back someday! Huge thanks to...

At first I was really excited to see these beautiful animals. They are truely beautiful! However seeing how small the cages were and the smell from the rotting meat was very sad. There was no way their food was put out that morning or even yesterday, it had the smell of rot and decay. The cages they are in are NOT big enough at all. These animals need space to roam, they are not meant to be caged. Looking at these animals you could see how stressed and sad they were. The little coyote was running in a figure eight the whole time, very unsettled. The bears left paw was cracked and very bloody, the poor bear looked like he was in pain. He was just holding his paw to his head. The poor artic wolfs looked very hot and stressed. The skunk was chased around the pen and pinned to his house to pick him up. The horse was full of mud and kicking himself in the stomach. As for the birds and ducks, children where picking up the eggs! That's not okay! The staff wasn't doing anything about it. Overall I am very heartbroken over how these...