This is appalling animal abuse and anyone who signs up for their sloth swims or any of the other animal experiences is complicit in this abuse. Sloths do not like to be touched or held and certainly do not belong in chlorinated swimming pools for people's entertainment. They have also been accused of fraud. If you plan on visiting please read The Sloth Conservation Foundation's information on this place. If you love sloths don't treat them like this.

I think I was more surprised at the fact that this is run out of a family's house with a lot of land versus more of a zoo type of feeling. But despite that I have to say I was surprised at the selection of animals that were available as well as the ability to feed zebra, and bison. The ability to be able to choose and holds various animals also was very appealing to this as my daughter has been clamouring to pull the monkey forever and she finally did. As far as the pricing goes you have to purchase the Safari pack to be able to then purchase the ability to hold, or pet in the in various animals. The Safari itself was $19, and then depending on the animal you wish to hold or pet is depending on the price. We pay to hold a monkey which was $19 per person. Overall The Experience wasn't bad. Probably the two worst things that I noticed with this particular Safari is that there is a lot of unnecessary 'artwork' and I say that because there was just various trucks and Furniture just strewn about the entire property, which I would assume is art. That sort of thing made the place like a little trashy. And the other thing that really bothers me is that there was a lot of animals in , what I would consider, small cages. They say these animals are not welcome at the zoo would have been rejects, so if that's the case then I can sort of reason with myself saying that this is the last chance for these animals. But to see a full-size lion in the size of a cage of my garage, twenty-four hours a day 365 days a year is a little bothersome. But regardless the staff were nice the animals look like they were fed well, they always had water that I was able to see, and the staff knew what they were talking about. The other issue is is that you're not allowed to take pictures anywhere on the property and that you have to pay $25 for them to take pictures and then they uploaded to website you download. To me that's a little fishy as why can I not just take my own pictures especially of the animals, because they do have a couple unique animals that you won't see anywhere else.

Wild animals should never be pimped out! Close this place fast!

My daughter and her bf (both early 20's) went here to have an up close experience with an otter. It is mandatory that you take the $20 tour before you could do the experience. They charge you extra for that, yet anyone else who wanted to do that all went at once. So nothing special. The animals are in cages that didn't provide sufficient exercise area. Not enough enrichment for the animals. You must sign a waiver stating that you are not with PETA or other similar groups...and with good reason. You are not allowed to take photos of the animals. My daughter mistakenly booked the "swim with otters" experience but called them within a couple of hours to change it to the cheaper package. They said they would refund her the difference...it's been 3 weeks. She finally had to call her credit card company to dispute the charge. NOT someplace to go if you care about animals at all. For just $3 more, you can go to Zoo Miami! - My daughter contributed her first hand experience to this post.

If I could give this place negative a thousand stars I would. This is terrible how this lady makes a profit off of allowing the public to come in and pet big cats. The tool dude who does the tour's must have worked at a carnival prior to his new position. Wild cats are NOT to be treated any other way other than wild cats and definitely not domesticated. Please for the love of God and wild animals do not give your money to this place. If you want to have big cat interactions go volunteer at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa. What they are doing over there is fantastic and they could use every help they can get. And any body coming here is stupid as $h!+.

Terrible zoo with way too small cages. Very sad, especially for the animals...

It would be great if you have low expectations! Definitely not worth $77 for a family of four! You will ride on an old tram with blistering tires, and inhale exhaust fumes from the Jeep pulling you on a tour that will pass a dozen pens or cages in hope to view to few animals they have. Because you are on the tram and they have vegetation growing in the front of the cages and pens, it was difficult to view the animals. For additional money you can pay to feed their animals and get your picture taken. Please understand they do not allow you to take any pictures from your personal camera once you start the tour, which is where you see all the animals.

The cages were extremely small and it was overall depressing. We left feeling bad.

Thank goodness they're finally closed 🙄

How has this place not been reported yet?

The animals looked depressed as all get out, and they were all in such small little cages. Upsetting and overpriced.

Dade City's Wild is a very nice place and the animals are very well cared for and loved. You will have a great experience and leave with wonderful memories. The place is clean and they are regulated by state and federal agencies .They are being targeted by animal activists who pay for negative comments on line. I have visited quite a few times and always have a great time. The swims are awesome and the photos are really nice. Great place for a reasonable price. I returned to Dade City's Wild Things one week ago. It was clean and the animals looked well cared for. I was fortunate to do an encounter with the lemur. It was very cute and friendly. I have to say I was impressed by the girl doing the encounters. She definitely has a bond with the animals and was very professional. I found the staff to be very friendly. I kind of liked the previous gift shop but it's nice to go right in now instead of waiting for the trolley. I will definitely return. I like the changes made to the tour.

How is this place still open? Those poor animals. I visited here on a preschool field trip and saw firsthand how small these cages were for these animals. All of these bad reviews too...you would think the state has regulations and some kind of inspector that comes out regularly to make sure these animals are being taken care of.

Our family decided to go to Wild Things despite the bad reviews on Google. Obviously, the reviews were planned by a group of individuals that set out to hurt businesses that help endangered animals and jobs for the community. Our family had a wonderful and educational tour of the facility. The animals are clean and well cared for and appear to be content. It was a Great experience for our 4 year old twins and 6 year old daughter who generally fear household animals let alone wild. They were not frightened at all! They commented that they had the best time ever! The only negative would be that I wish we could have taken photographs of the animals. However, the staff was very accommodating to take a group photo of us. The staff were very pleasant and appeared to enjoy their jobs which says a lot about the ownership of the facility.

I worked at this facility for about 1 1/2 weeks. My services were "no longer required" when I started asking questions and making statements about what I saw. The animals were NOT cared for well, lived in sub-par conditions, and the owners were absolutely horrible to their employees and animals. I am relieved they have been shut down permanently!

We absolutely loved this hidden treasure!! We paid for the 4 animal encounter and the jeep/ train was included. I highly recommend getting the animal encounter. The tour guy was great and the animal handlers were amazing!!! They were funny, knowledgeable and very personable. They truly cared about us and our experience. Definitely going again!!

I have been to Dade City Wild Things on a number of occasions, and it has been a wonderful experience every time. The people who run Dade City Wild Things are wonderful people that love their animals and treat them with love and care, they are very knowledgeable about all the animals in their care and they are willing to share their knowledge with the people that go there, and I would recommend them to anyone. It is fun for the whole family young and old, and you come away with such wonderful memories to cherish for life..all these one star reviews are just animal activists trying to make a wonderful place look bad with lies. Dade City Wild Things love their animals and treats them with love and care. Don't believe the rubbish they write..

Sorry but no further comment. Its not acceptable!

The staff were very courteous. I did not expect to be shuttled from where we paid to the zoo itself, but I don't remember if it was advertised that way or not. The tram driver once we got in was new so she read from her note book. I found the enclosures were small for they type of animal it housed, but the said the animals are walked daily with two leash handlers and they are leash trained. There was absolutely no evidence of abuse. The animals look well fed.

Unfair to the captive wild animals that are used as a source of income for the owner

My husband always wanted to let a lion or tiger, I found Dade City Wild Things and we were really excited! It was a quiet and nice little sanctuary. We loved the experience and definitely recommend our friends and family to visit. Will do it again!

It's a very fun and interesting experience to see, pet and hold exotic animals. That is always a huge plus. The guides that we encountered were awesome , very kind very informative. The low ranking I give is for the over charging , the attitude of the owner, and environment of the animals.. the lady at the register, who I believe was the owner was not the friendliest by far. At a business you would think to accommodate the guest and work out some deals. Nope she had the personality of a potato. You have to take a tour for $20 per person before you can do an aniimal encounter. Then one of those of $20 to 300+. When you walk in. Expect to pay 20 per person for jeep and another 20 plus person for short time with animal. Then the website says you get 10 min with that animal but that was untrue as well. If someone else has picked that animal you are sharing that time. So over priced and it does not appear the animals are benefiting from it. Cages waaaaay to small dirty, no enrichment. I dont blame the workers I blame the owner. She built a zoo on her property and is banking off of it.

Words cant express how great everyone was here. We had a great time and will be doing it again. The otters are a blast to swim with and would do it everyday if we could. The staff was extremely knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the animals we saw and encountered. We also met the tiger cub. This little guy is awesome!! Worth every penny to meet him. Seeing all these animals up close and personal gives a greater understanding why they shouldnt be pets. I highly recomend that anyone and everyone visit Dade City Wild Things and have an animal encounter of some kind. You will not be disappointed!!!! Thanks again Wild Things you were awesome!!!!!!!!!

I had some pretty big doubts about visiting after reading these reviews but I am so glad I didn’t listen! There is not a single doubt in my mind that these people LOVE AND CARE for these animals!!! I did the otter swim and had the most amazing once in a lifetime experience! You can tell the otters adore their trainers because they kept taking time out of the swim to go love and snuggle up to their trainers faces. It was too cute! They had a little float for the otters to hang out on and a basket full of toys to keep them entertained with. I had the time of my life and my husband said that I was actually in there for 45 mins which I’m so grateful for! Then as we were walking back to the front office there was a little baby tiger snuggled up to a lady’s leg in the office. They ended up taking him out into the lawn where he followed them around, played, and rubbed up against their legs. It breaks my heart to see all these awful reviews because I know it is causing others to not come here and miss out on such an awesome place! Not to mention these are rescued animals so they can’t just be let back out into the wild. If this place gets shut down more than likely all the animals are going to have to be euthanized. What’s worse an animal having a safe environment, being fed, and loved on or being put down?? Please just give this place a shot! I promise you won’t regret it! I had such an amazing time I’m already planning my next trip down! S.N. Photos posted on my yelp review

Disgraceful just read the reviews and look up in the media

We went to Dade City's Wild Things on Valentines Day 2016 and had a great time. We took a tram ride around the zoo viewing the animals along the way, held a baby kangaroo, fed a lion, and had a private encounter with a 4 month old tiger (I think the private encounter costs a bit extra but it was worth it to have some time away from the rest of the tour group). All of the staff members that we interacted with were friendly, intelligent, and seemed to really care about the animals. They asked us questions about the various interactions that we had and shared information about the specific animals that we saw (personalities, age, funny stories etc..). Overall I highly recommend checking this out if you are able to. My comments about the comments below: Tigers do love to be in water and spend a great deal of their time in rivers and lakes in the wild. It seems as though a few of the reviewers were applying their knowledge of the domestic house cat to tigers which must be where the misunderstanding stemmed from. While we were there new exhibits were being built, so it does seem like the owners are investing money back in to the business. Additionally I can't imagine what the food bill must be like for all of the animals and I can definitely say they all looked well fed. I thought the experience was well worth the price and would have paid much more had the prices been higher. During the animal interactions that we had the animals did not in anyway perform for us. It was an opportunity for us to be up close to an animal that we would otherwise never be able to safely do. That was it, no dancing, no rolling over for treats, no monkeys riding dogs, etc..

Amazing spot to go to with the kids. If you are tired of the whole Disney, Universal amd Epcot experiences and dealing with the crowds of people then I suggest you head to this spot. Granted it was an hour and half drive for us but we'll worth it. We got to play wwith an Otter. Like physically got to touch an Otter. My oldest daughter go to hold a desert fox. It was way to cute. My youngest daughter got to hold a Sloth. We got to fed a buffalo and 2 big tigers. Literally was a few feet away from a full grow tiger!! Cant do that at Disney! This place is amazing!! And honestly for everything that we did it wasnt that expensive. Y'all need to head there and learn why they have this place. People think that they just lock the animals away in cages. Not the cases. They help the animals who needed to be rescued. They care about the animals and by far they love to tell great knowledge about each one that they have there. Check them out you won't regret it

This was one of the best days of my life being able to hold all the animals especially the baby lions Simba and his brother Osland.

My son loves animals and dreams one day becoming an exotic veterinarian. While looking for something interesting to do over the weekend, we came across Wild Things Zoo. Along with the zoo’s website, we also read the unfortunate news of what they’re going through. I am so happy it did not stop us making a trip. We had a great time. You can really see the deep loving relationships between the animals and keepers. We loved the hands on interactions and friendly staff. Can’t brag enough on this place. We truly loved the experience.

We got to pet an otter, a sloth, and a fennec Fox today! Beautiful place, well cared for animals. Would definitely recommend for anyone! The staff was friendly and knowledgeable.

Just wanted to thank wild things in dade city for the great time i had there on sunday, had a nice time walking with randy and then mr. stearns, got to see some animals reactions that left me speachless. i got to see first hand what care they give to the animals there keeping them safe and warm during cooler nights. enjoyed the swims and sara. and the staff is the best there, you couldnt ask for better trainers and peolle who love all their animals. so greatfull for all the stearn family does. thank you kathy for making this all happen.

Great place to unwind and see wild animals that are very well taken care of.

My grandson loved holding the animals.

This was by far the most amazing life experience. All the animals looked so healthy and happy! The handler during the animal encounters was very knowledgeable about all the animals. Highly recommend this experience to animal lovers!

Had a great time with my family 2 years ago would go again if I was in the area

Outstanding collection, had a great time playing with everyone. The animals are well cared for, there was no dirty enclosures all had water no distress. Outstanding job. Highly recommended. Owners are very kind and exceptional people. We will be revisiting this place again

Enjoyed everything! What a great way for my kids to get up close to so many animals. Everyone enjoyed the day and we will be back.

My post is from the experience itself which was a lot of fun! We took the tram ride during the summer and it was quite hot of course, so as Floridians we knew shorts, hats and tank tops were a must to keep cool! Lots of cute animals to see, but the best part was where we paid to pet specific animals after the tram ride! We got to pet a baby tiger, baby monkey, baby wallaby & a fennec fox. It was very special and the trainers were very sweet and good about answering our questions. You can also add-on a photo package for when you're playing with the animals that was well worth it since you can't use your camera on property.

Went there on a salvage one purchasing miscellaneous materials used to then close safety barriers from the public no longer open for business

We had a great time, cannot take any photos of your own. My littes loved it.

Enjoyed our visit very much. Animals were a delight. Staff very pleasant. Gift shop some very nice mementos. The pictures they took of us interacting with animals came out great. They were emailed to us.

Me and my family went to Dade City's Wild Things on January 19th 2020 I texted the zoo the owner Kathy got right back to be and answered all my questions right away so we were staying in Tampa and took the a beautiful ride to zoo. We get there very friendly gentleman told us were to park then we went into gift shop and met Kathy the owner so helpful and friendly the place is amazing with vintage trucks phonebooth's vintage signs and it's real people working there so friendly and no all the facts about the animals and they treat them unbelievable and love them they have lots of animals and you get to hold them upclose my stepson's bucket list includes holding a Sloth and thanks to Dade's City's Wild Things made his dream come true Thank you to Kathy and her Awesome Staff A+++++ surport local family business !!!

Great place to take the wee ones, my grandson is 4 and LOVED it.

Great experience for all ages we thoroughlyly enjoyed our day with the animals. Thank God there are people willing to put animals to good use in educating the public!

One of the only places in the United States where you can swim with otters! Such a great time! John the photographer/tour guide and Megan the animal handler were both great! I definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to see a large variety of animals or wanting an encounter with some amazing animals!

They offer very cool individual experiences that you just can't find anywhere else!

Don’t bother coming not worth at all.

Wonderful experience!!! The animals were incredibly happy and well cared for.

Good

Great place!

Went to the coolest wedding there!!