09/01/2026
I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has made this dream possible. Without our members, guests, dedicated staff and community, none of this would be possible.
I grew up in a cabin in the woods in western Pennsylvania. We couldn't see the public road from home or our nearest neighbors, who were actually my grandparents. While most kids grow up with friends and activities away from home, my first memories were caring for animals with my family which was about all I did, besides stacking firewood, all the way until I started school. My entire life has revolved around animals. Caring for them, planning for the and building for them.
40 years later, the only real change for me is the scale of what we do. More animals require more knowledge, land, resources and more help to get through each day. These days we have nearly 1000 animals and a team of over 100 staff in peak season and contracted professionals in addition to that. We have over 150 acres dedicated to our animals and another 125 of local conservation land utilized by native wildlife. I am blessed to have grown up and lived my adult life doing what I love.
There have been countless obstacles along the way which I have tried to learn from in every instance.
Human error is real and inevitable. I've made my share of mistakes and so have many others. Dedication and love for our animals is what keeps us moving forward on the best path possible as we address every circumstance.
I can tell you that we work endlessly as a whole to keep this dream a float.
It's always discouraging to hear of any individual who has had a bad experience at our facilities. The only thing that makes me lose more sleep is worrying about my family which includes my animal and work family as well. I rarely sleep before reading each review and feedback that comes in from our guests and everyone involved here.
We work hard to keep our guests, staff, and animals safe. We have many state and federal rules and regulations to comply with and fairness and compliance is always our priority.
It is important to understand that some rules are in place to comply with laws, some are in place to protect our guests and animals, and some are in place to protect the sustainability of what we do.
Recently we have experienced a few instances with guests verbally lashing out about some of the rules and policies we hold here at our parks. While I understand, "the customer comes first", is a common belief in our society. In our situation, it is often more complicated than that.
We won't get into the details of what has happened, but I will say that this is a family friendly environment with rules that we are not going to bend or break to appease anyone. If you choose to make physically threatening gestures, use profane language, yell or otherwise pose a threat to our facility, including guests, animals, staff or park property, you will be asked to leave. If you refuse to leave, you will be escorted out immediately by our trained staff members. If police are required, they will be called. Whatever it takes to maintain a suitable environment for the people and animals here to enjoy our parks peacefully. Each and every instance of any significance will be reviewed by me personally. Witnesses will be questioned, surveillance will be reviewed and if fault is found, it will be addressed.
Without our guests we would have never made it this far and this dream would have died long ago. Just know that we take that very seriously.
Thank you for your time.
AG
