Pros
The team members do genuinely care about the animals, however department turnover rate was 88%
Cons
C level management will throw staff and animals under the bus to try to make a profit or save money. During COVID they furloughed every staff member (except some management) without pay, insurance or access to using vacation/sick time. They groom their general/husbandry managers to be "yes men" by intimidating them and as a result those managers (who are mostly young 20s) will scapegoat staff out of fear of the higher ups. Communication is basically the game telephone and is untrustworthy; despite our teams' interaction workload increasing 300% in a year, raises that were promised multiple times never happened and instead they fired people during yearly reviews to save money. Management wouldn't approve basic facility needs; there was no dishwasher so dishes were hand washed in cold water b/c the hot water broke, the dryer and washing machine only worked with duct tape and there were a few times staff bought animal supplies with their own money. They will say animal welfare is one of their 3 pillars but the evidence speaks to the contrary. I lost count of how many dead animals I have seen. Animals were often obtained from sketchy sources with their health unknown or sickly and were either put directly on exhibit with questionable quarantine procedures or were placed in a less than desirable holding facility because they didn't have room for the animal yet. Animals often escaped from exhibits that management built improperly b/c they didn't want to pay a professional. Interactions were conflicting in nature; kinkajous and sloths were brought in to do daily interactions despite being nocturnal, baby otters were separated from their families despite being a highly social species and were often kept alone, as was the capybara who was frequently cornered by guests despite being a skiddish, social rodent species. Staff was told to withhold diet amounts from animals so that they would be more interactive for guests who could feed them, but that led to aggression from some species (the sharks would bump you in the stingray tank looking for food). Staff were discouraged from filing incident reports for themselves, only for guests. Exhibits were often not big enough or suited for the animal to thrive, just to survive. Overall very sad to see so many staff members care about these animals but not have the resources or voice to make changes that the company is blind to.