01/07/2024
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
With a new year beginning, we always take the time to reflect on our past year and what our goals are for the year ahead.
After much consideration and prayer, we have made the difficult decision to retire from doing animal programs and sloth encounters. We have been USDA licensed for over 13 years and have dedicated our lives to doing animal rescue and education.
Many of you have seen us travel with the same animals year after year. Lillian our kinkajou is around 20 yrs old, Coco the coatimundi is 13, Bogota our Columbian tegu has traveled with us for 10+ years, Rosie the red-tailed boa is close to 15 yrs old, our corn snake is over 10 years old, etc. These animals have all worked with us for years and absolutely deserve retirement in their later years of life. We always take the commitment to any new younger animals very seriously, and with Bryan's and my age, we don't feel that obtaining new animals for our programs are in the best interest of the animals or us.
In the 14 years that we have been in business, we have felt blessed to be able to work with some of the most amazing species and have met so many incredible amazing families along our journey.
We hope that if you ever learned anything about us during a program, that at the end of the show you walked away saying those two really love their animals and the animals love them.
We have done thousands of shows and I can remember each and every one. We are so thankful for all of the support and love over the years as we took a small idea and it grew faster and bigger than we could have ever imagined.
All of these years our motto was "it's not about us, it's about the animals". You rarely saw a picture of Bryan or I. If we felt a show was too loud or an animal was too nervous, we would not bring them out. It's always been about them and what's best. This decision is no different.
So today, we are being true to our word we have given to our animals , including the sloths. Willow had recently shown some signs of digestive issues and we promised and prayed on her that if she recovered that we would stop all encounters. As she continues to show signs of improvement...we are staying true to our promise.
We apologize to all of you that may be disappointed, that we were not able to get to, that have been on our waiting list. Fortunately, it was just a waiting list and we never asked for deposits to be on that list. Through your disappointment, please just know that this decision was made with our animal's health as a priority and if you are a true animal lover, you will understand our need to discontinue our encounters.
Thank you for your patience, your understanding and for your shared love of all God's critters.
Terri & Bryan
Our Zoo To You