The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader published an informative article about the recent reopening of the former Exotic Animal Paradise near Strafford, Mo., now the Animal Paradise Family Fun Park.
The park reopened in April after it was sold at auction last year.
It sounds like a lot of improvements have been made:
[T]hey brought in new animals. Lisa Ann Oddo estimates the attraction has about 200 animals in 40 species. That is a number similar to the number of species that had been at the park previously, she said.
The couple also is building a better habitat for the animals, Lisa Ann Oddo said.
“We are bringing back more natural settings for the animals with more grass and stuff,” she said.
To comply with federal regulations, the Oddos have put up 9-foot fences around the park.
And there’s something new for tourists, too. Aside from fresh paint for park facilities, a 5 1/2-mile drive around the park has been improved, and guided tram tours are available.
The speedway at the park has been remodeled with brand-new go-karts. And upscale concessions are available as part of an outing at the park, Oddo said. […]
Other amenities include a frozen lemonade stand, an arcade, a taffy candy store and an old-time photo shop, Oddo said. […]
Future plans include offering bass fishing and miniature golfing, as well as biking trails and a batting cage.
The park has scheduled a grand opening event for Aug. 3.
(Hat tip to Tommy and Glenda Pike.)Â
I hope this old/new attraction gets a lot of attention from the media so people know that, in fact, it’s not closed. We drove by the entrance a couple of weeks ago, and the updating and renovations are obvious even from the road. (Well, maybe not from I-44, but you should be driving Route 66, anyway!) My daughters — now 35 (and married) and 31 hope to get back and recover some of those childhood memories. So do I!
I’m glad they’re improving the conditions for the animals. Hopefully they’ll figure out a way of regulating the amount of feed the critters get, too; the old practice of free-feeding the animals as much as travelers cared to buy and hand out the window made for cute photo ops, but it also made for disturbingly obese animals. Maybe they can rotate the animals, so that half of them are “on duty,” pestering the tourists for handouts, while the other half graze and roam around behind fences. A couple of Border collies would make it a simple enough matter to move the critters once or twice a day. The process of moving them would be fun for tourists to watch, too. I’d pay extra to see good cattle dogs work. 🙂
What happens now that the park has sold AGAIN? What about the kids that have hospital bills from the band accident that happened under the watch of the Otto’s….these bill have NEVER been paid? This is a major company and they have NO insurance? Come on!