The new owners of a private zoo in Chatham-Kent are calling the opportunity a dream come true.
The Patten family from Ridgetown recently purchased Greenview Aviaries in Morpeth.
The 50-acre property, which had been run by the previous owners for nearly four decades, went up for sale in January as is home to around 450 animals including several big cats.
Alicia Patten said she grew up visiting the zoo and it became a family tradition. When her grandmother, to whom she was very close, passed away recently she left Patten a note, encouraging her to purchase her dream property.
Patten said she took it as a sign.
"I grew up coming here with my grandparents my entire life" she explained. "It opened the year I was born and that's when we started coming. It just became this staple in my every summer routine. We'd been looking for country property. We'd been looking to start farming as a career instead of just a hobby. We had a hobby farm previously. The same day that I got this note, [my husband] called me and said 'guess what, somebody just told me that Greenview Aviaries is coming up for sale.'"
According to Patten, she and her husband decided to go all in, quit their jobs and buy the property.
The pair now oversees the zoo with their five and eight-year-old daughters, who Patten said are adjusting well.
"They are loving it. They love to walk around and educate people," she said. "If they hear people calling animals the wrong name or sharing facts that aren't true, they will stop and [correct them.]"
Patten said guests to Greenview Aviaries can expect to see several upgrades and improvements to the property including larger spaces for the animals and new housing for the animals in the wintertime to give them more space and allow them to move around more freely when the cold weather hits.
"We're updating things that were starting to get a little bit dated. We're updating all the enclosures to the new standards, so [all the animals] are getting much, much larger enclosures," she explained. "The big cats are getting four times the size they have right now. We're doing a big pride rock for the lions, we're doing a big pond for the tigers to swim in. All the primates are also going to be getting new enclosures."
Although the family had some previous experience with running their hobby farm, Patten said they are still learning the ropes when it comes to caring for exotic animals at the zoo. According to Patten, the previous owners continue to help them through the process.
"All of our experience with the exotic end of things is through being educated by the previous owners," she explained. "They're still here, they've been here the whole season...They're going to stay as long as we need them to."
You can listen to the complete interview with Patten below.
https://soundcloud.com/blackburn-radio-windsor/they-bought-a-zoo-meet-the-new-owners-of-greenview-aviaries?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fblackburn-radio-windsor%252Fthey-bought-a-zoo-meet-the-new-owners-of-greenview-aviaries