Shameful Zoo

What a horrible experience our visit was at Johannesburg Zoo, trust the staff to ruin Freedom Day and a family outing. Unfriendly, rude and self-entitled staff from the entrance gate all the way to the Animals of the Amazon.

On arrival at the entrance the security was standing and chatting to a taxi parked right in the entrance driveway - we were told to wait for them to complete their chat before we were allowed to drive in.

At the parking lot a female security guard shouted at us where we are and are not allowed to stop. We had to squeeze our big 4x4 into the smallest parking where we could barley open our doors to get in and out.

Walking down the disgustingly dirty path to the entrance of the zoo, another rude, self-entitled security guard herded us into lines like sheeple and then demanded that only one person is allowed in the line - the other people should go stand in the blazing sun - so much for pre booking tickets and what an awesome start to our family outing.

Many of the enclosures are in bad condition and the animals look unhappy and unhealthy with inadequate food for amount of animals cramped together. Some pack animals are enclosed in small cages by themselves. The rhinos and a cheeta were locked in a tiny cage and not allowed to roam around their enclosure. Other enclosures are empty and others have the wrong or no information of animals displayed.

The grounds and walkways are filthy and not been cleaned in a while. Litter and bad smells travel throughout the zoo. Another concern is the visibly dirty water of the lakes and ponds and even the water in the enclosures of the poor animals.

At the Animals of the Amazon exhibit another ill-mannered general worker - who stated her name to be Agnus, was disrespectfully shouting at us and other paying zoo visitors for not putting on our marks fast enough to her liking upon entering the mediocre exhibit. She continued to shout at us horrible inappropriate remarks long after our masks were placed and we entered the exhibition. I decided to confront her on her profound rudeness and took a picture of her to complain to zoo management about their staff’s behaviour.

We decided to leave the zoo early as we had enough of this tormenting experience. The bad manners of the staff and unsettling conditions these animals must live in marred our entire day and family outing. What a pathetic excuse of a zoo Johannesburg Zoo is. One can only hope that the animals will be treated with more respect and dignity than the paying visitors.