By paNOW Staff

‘Education and entertainment’: Petting zoo about more than just smiles

Aug 1, 2018 | 8:00 AM

For three years Dale Durell has travelled around on his holidays over the summer from town to with his aptly named O’MacDale’s Friendly Farm petting zoo.

From miniature horses to an eight-day-old donkey, alpacas, llamas, goats, quails, ducks, doves and rabbits; you name it, chances are Durell’s farm has it. 

And while bringing joy to kids and adults is the clear goal of the exhibit, educating attendees on where their food originates is a found joy of the job for the Fairy Glen resident.

“These days children don’t get a lot of chance to see animals anymore the farms are getting smaller and grandma and grandpa don’t live on the farm with animals anymore,” Durell said. “Saskatchewan is getting to be more of an urban province.”

One example of this Durell said he will never forget was when one of his chicken laid an egg in front of a young girl and she asked what he was going to do with the egg. “Eat it for breakfast,” he simply replied to shock from the young girl, who went on to say she had never had a “real egg … only ones from the store.”

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“I will never forget that,” he said.

In the centre of the display sits a wooden and glass case bolted shut. In it, hundreds of honey bees, giving patrons a chance to observe the inner workings of a hive. Durell hopes the display drive home the message for the importance of bees in nature.

“We get asked lots about it,” he said. “Many people don’t realize that if bees don’t pollinate, we wouldn’t have a whole lot in a few years.”

Durell’s travelling petting zoo is on display at the 135th PAEX Summer Fair until Saturday in the Archie Anderson Building from 1 to 9 p.m. each day.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow