The highlight for me was the trout pond where my son and I watched several first time fisher kids catch their first trout. The low point for me was watching the Black Bear show where, for a couple bucks, you could get your picture taken with a real live Black Bear.
I gave up hunting a long time ago to raise my kids and just have never gotten back into it. I do think that there's a place for zoos and wildlife parks because they, in my experience, tend to learn and then teach about the animals in their care and often times help with endangered and/or threatened species. I’m not trying to sound like a tree hugger here, but I’m thinking that if you want to have your photo taken with a real live Black Bear it should be in the wild after you’ve wrestled him hand to paw to the ground and gained his compliance. Then get your photo taken, shake hands/paws and let him go. Or shoot him and have him for dinner, either way the Bear maintains a little dignity. Having your picture taken at a very advanced age while chained to a heavy metal chair, fed marshmallows to keep you compliant, and being separated by a thick sheet of Plexiglass from someone, who if you were hungry and found in the woods you and your forest friends would make a meal of, is just demeaning.
I’m just saying, any thoughts?
