Bitten, Mauled, and Clawed: Why Roadside Zoo Field Trips Are Dangerous For Your Students

Considering a roadside zoo for your class field trip? Think again. Roadside zoos force sentient beings to spend their lives behind bars just to entertain the public. Living conditions are often dismal, with animals confined to cramped, filthy, barren enclosures where they suffer from relentless frustration and loneliness and sometimes even endure abuse from the people who are supposed to be caring for them. Roadside zoos aren’t just bad for the animals, however. There’s a long and often undocumented history of severe injuries to humans by animals imprisoned at these facilities.

Is a Roadside Zoo a Good Field Trip Destination?

Taking a class of students to a roadside zoo puts the children and teachers in a dangerous situation. In addition, if an incident like the ones listed below should occur, it could have extremely harmful or even traumatizing effects on children.

Dangerous Animal Incidents at Roadside Zoos

This list will be updated as more of these incidents are discovered or published.

• July 2025: A six-year-old boy was injured by an octopus during a public encounter at San Antonio Aquarium. The octopus, Cthulhu, reportedly grabbed onto the boy’s arm. It reportedly took three adult employees and about five minutes to remove the octopus from the boy’s arm, which was left with suction cup bruising from his wrist to his armpit.
• January 2024: Three children were bitten by a capuchin named Romeo during a private encounter at Zoological Wildlife Foundation (ZWF), with one child requiring treatment at a hospital, where they received a tetanus shot and antibiotics. Four months later, another child was bitten by Romeo, and also required emergency care.
• September 2023: A green vervet monkey reached through his cage and grabbed a 2-year-old child at Bow Champs Exotic Petting Zoo. The monkey pulled the toddler in and bit him above his eyebrow. After learning that the monkey wasn’t fully vaccinated, the toddler’s mother paid $250 to have the monkey’s blood tested.
• November 2023: A five year old child was bitten on the arm by a ring-tailed lemur at Laredo Safari Adventure Park. The incident occurred when the lemur jumped on the child’s back to reach for a banana.
• May 2023: A sugar glider bit a child during an interactive experience at SeaQuest Trumbull after the child squeezed the animal. Staff couldn’t identify which sugar glider had bitten the guest, so all five were quarantined by state health officials.
• August 2022: A kinkajou bit a boy on the hand during an encounter at Austin Aquarium, and the child had to seek medical treatment. This incident was one of several at the facility that prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue an official warning to the Austin Aquarium for failing to ensure public safety during animal encounters.
• March 2022: A 1-year-old child sustained injuries requiring emergency care during an encounter in which the child and their parents were allowed to enter an enclosure with free-roaming lemurs. The animals jumped on the child’s head and shoulders, causing a scratch below one eye and an injury to the back of the head.
• August 2021: An alligator chomped down on a trainer and refused to let go at Scales and Tails in West Valley City, Utah. A visitor jumped into the enclosure to help the trainer. The incident occurred at a girl’s birthday party, and several young children saw it unfold.
• March 2021: Oklahoma court documents reveal that a woman was left disabled and disfigured after sustaining life-threatening injuries from being attacked during an encounter with an elephant at the Endangered Ark Foundation in Hugo.

• February 2021: A volunteer at a roadside zoo in California was hospitalized with injuries to her torso and neck after being attacked by a leopard.
• November 2020: A child was bitten at ZooWorld during a lemur encounter was taken to the hospital for treatment. The zookeeper present at the time stated that the lemur attempted to grab the child’s mask and then bit the child on the left cheek.
• October 2020: A 2-year-old girl lost an arm while reaching into a cage that contained wolf-dog hybrids at an unlicensed facility in Michigan.
• October 2020: A child was bitten by a juvenile chimpanzee during a photo op at Zoological Wildlife Foundation. After being brought out by a handler and seated next to the child, the chimpanzee suddenly grabbed the child’s arm and bit it, causing a deep laceration that required stitches.

The list goes on—read more about dangerous encounters with animals at roadside zoos across the country.