Sideshow Freak

Years ago, we did a lot of wildlife and exotic animal education programs. We loved it. Educating the public about the wildlife in their backyards was our favorite thing to do.  We loved seeing the people in our community and people loved seeing us, but mostly people loved seeing the unusual variety of animals we shared.

After a few years of doing this, especially when we were doing multiple programs each month, we noticed life in the public was not good for our animals. After these events many of our animals would show signs of stress.  It only took a few times of seeing the negative impact that public display had on the animals, and we said no more.

For the record, we never used any of our native wildlife rehab patients for programs. It is our job to protect releasable wildlife from human imprinting, habituation, or desensitization to people.  We usually shared some of our exotics and native non-releasable wildlife, like our King Snake named Pretzel or our giant tortoises.  Folks loved our Tarantulas, Iguanas and Bearded Dragons.  Our farm turkey, Buttercup, was quite the celebrity, too.

We stepped away from programs that required animal exhibition about 4 years ago. It hurt us a lot.  Our youth education programs were free and not a source of any income, but it was a way for the public to have one-on-one encounters with their local rescue. The negative impact for us was we stopped receiving donations since we were not in the public eye as much.  Ouch!

We learned that our main responsibility is the health and welfare of the animals in our care.  Most of the animals that come to us, both wild and exotic, have been through unimaginable abuse and neglect.  They came to us to heal, not to be sideshow freaks at an education program and certainly not to be used as an income resource.

We still enjoy the occasional local outing and will even bring our very social, crowd-loving tortoises to visit.  We have been to schools and career days to talk about what we do, and to community helper day at our local elementary school to educate students about what to do if you find wildlife.  We still have our yearly “Let’s Get Snakey” snake identification class, which we can also present to your business or organization.  But we just cannot be irresponsible stewards of the animals who trust us to provide a secure, stable environment for the rest of their lives.  And we cannot risk the chances for native wildlife in our care to not be able to be released back into the wild when rehabilitation is completed.

All wildlife (even most exotic pets) are high stress animals.  There is no such thing as TRULY domesticating or taming a wild or exotic animal.  Some species become human imprinted or human habituated, but wild and exotic animals NEVER lose their natural instincts.  They just use the ability to trust those instincts enough to use them.

Not all zoos, petting zoos, or animal education facilities are BAD.  There are a lot of great zoos and animal sanctuaries to visit in South Carolina.  When you do visit these places, native wildlife on display should only be non-releasable wildlife.  Releasable wildlife cannot under any circumstances, be human habituated, imprinted, or desensitized to people.  This means non-releasable animals should never cohabitate with releasable wild animals.  We believe in this so strongly at our rescue that once an animal is being weaned and ready for release, we do not even talk around them and a few weeks before release they rarely see us.  We limit the number of different people a wild animal sees while in care.  We need releasable wild animals to NOT associate people with food, security, or companionship.  We need releasable wildlife to have a natural fear of people and pets.

Finally, if you attend events or facilities that have wild, exotic, or even farm animals on display, please know that no matter how docile and friendly these animals appear, a person, place, or even a smell could cause stress.  Ask the animal handler before you try to touch or feed an animal.  Some facilities may already have instructions in place at enclosures detailing what is allowed.  Respect an animal’s personal space.  Social distancing isn’t just for humans.