Today marked the beginning of the last year of my 30’s and as my gift, my family went to The Giraffe Ranch in Dade City, FL.
Have you ever fed a giraffe? Have you ever smelled their grassy breath? These are memories that will last you a lifetime. At Giraffe Ranch in Dade City, Florida you'll experience first hand, the lives of giraffe and other species from around the world living under huge live oaks in a setting that is right out of Africa. Giraffe Ranch is a licensed working ranch that specializes in exotic species as well as domestic cattle and horses. Learn about exotic animals from an expert guide from the comfort of specially designed 4-wheel drive vehicles. We'll show you our conservation efforts and how we are helping to preserve species that are extinct in the wild. Visit us for the ultimate eco-adventure
Have you ever fed a giraffe? Have you ever smelled their grassy breath? These are memories that will last you a lifetime. At Giraffe Ranch in Dade City, Florida you'll experience first hand, the lives of giraffe and other species from around the world living under huge live oaks in a setting that is right out of Africa.
Giraffe Ranch is a licensed working ranch that specializes in exotic species as well as domestic cattle and horses. Learn about exotic animals from an expert guide from the comfort of specially designed 4-wheel drive vehicles. We'll show you our conservation efforts and how we are helping to preserve species that are extinct in the wild. Visit us for the ultimate eco-adventure
Not only did we get to feed some giraffes, but we got to hand feed some lemurs!
King Julian was not available for a photo
For that kind of fun, I was willing to put up with some ‘hippie level, eco-nonsense’ about how we’re killing off all the animals or how awful it was to hunt blah blah blah. I couldn’t have been any more wrong.
The gentleman who runs the ranch talked about real conservation. He had a pen of a type of antelope that I cannot recall the name, but in the pen he said were more of this species than in all of Africa combined. He went on to say that the Africans hunted these to near extinction and what saved them was not PETA or ‘animal rights’ groups (who, by his words, only stole your money and wasted it) but hunters. He said that since the animals were harem based – only one male needed for many females – that hunters would raise herds so that they could then hunt the unnecessary males. The owner reminded people that capitalism saved these animals, not government mandated altruism.
I almost got a tear in my eye.
He also mentioned several other animals that survive to this day because of the conservation efforts of hunters. Ducks, surprisingly, were on his list.
They raised chickens for eggs (of which we bought a dozen) and didn’t have the most pleasant things to say about the government and their controls over such industries. They drove by their cattle and discussed how government subsidies of corn made grass fed cows cost prohibitive thus depriving us of really, really good beef and milk. During one part of the tour he discussed how after the hurricanes a few years ago that there was no power to the area, which was fine with him and his wife. They had a generator, all the food they could need just walking in their back yard, and plenty of guns to protect them with.
My kind of people.
They believed in real conservation, not the “Ooh look at me I drive a Prius and only eat organically grown alfalfa sprouts” kind. I was impressed.
I also got to see zebras, donkeys, ostrich, pigmy hippos, warthogs, and many other things. Worth every penny and we all want to go back again.
Did I mention I HAND FED LEMURS GRAPES? Just want to make sure you knew that.