Our Trip to Flamingo Gardens

Today I went to Flamingo Gardens, along with Ethan, Crista, Mom, Mrs. Buondelmonte, Vinnie and James. Flamingo Gardens is a large animal sanctuary and botanical garden. There were walkways through the gardens, and there were all sorts of amazing plants that I've never seen before. The animals were just as amazing. We saw many types of birds, including one called a spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill

and at least three different types of owls: barn owls, great horned owls, and barred owls. We saw a show called Wildlife Encounter where animal keepers brought out four animals for the audience to observe. All of the animals were injured or handicapped in some way and were permanent residents of the sanctuary. I'll describe them here:
#1: An opossum named Penny. Penny was hit by a car, and although she survived, she was permanently blinded. The keeper told us that she is the best-looking opossum we'll ever see; opossums in the wild want to look as dirty, disgusting, and inedible as possible, as they have very few ways of escaping predators.

 Penny the Virginian Opossum

#2: A barred owl named Whisper. Whisper fell out of his nest when he was only three days old and broke both his hips. Rather than have him euthanized, the people at Flamingo Gardens kept him, knowing that he would never fly. Whisper had been a part of the Wildlife Encounter ever since Flamingo Gardens obtained him, as he could never be released into the wild.
#3: A box turtle named Shelly. Shelly was a pet that was given to Flamingo Gardens. As Shelly had been around humans and fed by them her whole life, she couldn't be released into the wild, as all her instincts were gone. Shelly is only nine years old. She is not yet fully grown.
#4: A baby alligator. The alligator was one of the offspring of the two alligators at the Gardens: Elvis and Priscilla. Like Shelly, the alligator had come to associate humans with food, and therefore could never be released into the wild. Alligators that associated humans with food will come closer to developed areas where humans live. Alligators that do that are killed, because they are deemed too dangerous to live. The alligator's skin is sold as high-quality leather, their meat is used in soups, and their head and jaw becomes a souvenir in a shop. This is why there is a law against feeding alligators.

I came away from Flamingo Gardens with a sense of thankfulness that I had gone, as my time in Florida is growing short and I know that it is unlikely I will ever be able to observe animals in their natural habitat again.