Dear Editor,

I recently had some friends visiting me from Edmonton, and we decided to go to the Greater Vancouver Zoo.

We went expecting to have a good time, and as I haven't been there since I was a child, I was hoping to revisit the place I enjoyed years ago.

Instead, we were greeted at the gates by an indifferent, gum-chewing texter and a hefty entrance fee.

And walking through the place I once loved as a child was depressing. All the animals were alone. well, most of them, at least.

The most disturbing one was a little Wallaby, alone, sitting as far as it could from any people, with his back to the fence, looking at his feet. It made me notice how most of the animals looked sad.

There are two male eagles in the southeast part of the zoo, in a small area, definitely not enough space for two birds of that size.

And the rhino stood on a cracked cement pad in the middle of a grassy yard with a barbed wire fence. His horns were chipped and broken, and his feet looked like they were splitting.

I am all for the learning experience of seeing wildlife and learning about animals, but I would not bring my children and pay a fortune for them to see these animals in these conditions.

I was recently at the Calgary Zoo; I paid a lot less and saw a lot more.

It was disappointing how we paid full price to go to the zoo, and many parts of the zoo were closed off, due to renovations, and this was not brought to our attention before we forked up the 90 bucks for four people.

And the "forking up of the cash" didn't stop there. We paid $16 for drinks at a drink stand, so we didn't bother with the food.

When I think of a zoo, I think of exotic animals and cool enclosures. I did not expect an enclosure just for ducks. I've seen more of these animals in my own backyard, and they were not as depressed as the animals we saw in the zoo.

Shanaya Smith, Aldergrove