Reviewing YouTubers Who Build Zoos

Jacob Feder is an awful human.



Whilst it's apparent that he loves his animals, his enclosures really are quite poor (though some of his turtle ponds are quite nice). His builds are incredibly small and fixed, offering no opportunity for behavioural diversity. Unfortunately, his fans seem to love him and see nothing wrong with his actions (very few comments can be found speaking out against his poor standards).

Not only does the idiot have a clouded leopard (alongside many other species), but he will soon be getting a tiger! As I saw one comment suggest, this seems like the start to Tiger King 2.0...

 

Where’s the housing?(not asking you of course but that’s what struck me first). There’s no off show space for the tiger to be off public view either on its own volition or for treatment or training etc. Theres no planting (though maybe that’s for later), no pond or water feature etc. It’s a pretty small enclosure too - the owner keeps going on about this being a big improvement on lots of private zoo spaces for tigers - there must the. be some poor spaces out there. Essentially it’s a big hutch with a nicer space for visitors than the tiger. Seems odd to me. I don’t follow this stuff much however so maybe I’m off piste.

 

I’ve heard that this guy has ties to Doc Antle which might explain a thing or two.

 

May I introduce you to the piles upon piles of channels featuring individuals who keep big cats [mainly black panthers [probably leopards]] as handling pets ...
Though it makes me wonder where all these cats come from ... something like a 'I know a guy who knows another guy who has an email adress to a guy who breeds the cats at his house' sort of thing?

 

I'm fairly familiar with him, I started watching him briefly when he still had Inidian spotted turtles, red footed tortoises, and rhinoceros iguanas in his back garden. I saw some of his videos again when he was first talking about starting his own private zoo (or whatever it is), and I have to say a lot of the stuff he has done with tortoises is pretty impressive, but it seems maybe he should of stuck to that.
What started getting me worried (and even annoyed at the lack of criticism I had seen at this point) is when he started talking about putting Clouded Leopards in tiki hut cages, and the Capuchin in a nappy Jacob Feder seems to be in full contact with is a whole other situation that could be discussed. And his other enclosures for mammals aren't much different, that Tiger enclosure wouldn't be exceptional in size for even something like a Geoffrey's, Jungle, or Pallas cat.
Speaking of the tiger enclosure, 40 seconds in to that second video he describes it as "honestly one of the nicest private habitats that I've ever seen."
"I've been to a lot of animal facilities, I've seen some habitats, I've helped build a lot of habitats, so this is the culmination of a lot of my animal experience designing this habitat from the ground up".
Now this could be seen as worrying, but maybe not surprising information to hear from him, however, weirdly enough, despite all of this he does seem to have good knowledge of his species, and even has information signs in front of a lot of his enclosures, so at least he isn't completely unknowledgeable.
I seem to remember he had connections with some sort of zoo, as far as I can remember, it wasn't much more impressive than Jacob's private zoo, and I think there was even a humanized young chimp from there that has featured in some of his videos before. If I remember correctly he has also had a young pair of otters he was hand rearing star on his channel previously as well.
Edit: Yep, just checked his channel and the amount of positive feedback and defending of any negative feedback he is getting is concerning...

 

Man I just read back the cringey takes 2021 me had. They did NOT age well and some completely shifted

But what the heck?

15:15
''We literally spared no expense, I feel like I'm building Jurassic Park here''

Yeah, we all know how that story ended... catastrophic with 2 trilogies of men eating monsters..
Let's hope those Tiger's won't do the same.. Though given he is preparing for storms with those drains and the floodfield.. who knows....

 

I found this channel today:
https://www.youtube.com/@HLsMenagerie/featured

While not every enclosure is the best, this guy is doing so much better than the majority of channels like this out there. He only joined at the beginning of last year and has said that he is always looking for ways to improve the habitats for the animals and tries to put their needs before his. The primates have better exhibits than what I was expecting, and the hoofstock and ratites have a nice field. He said that the goal of this private facility is to provide kids with educational experiences to help them better respect animals.

So, while this isn't an AZA facility by any means, I think that this guy has a lot of potential, seeing as he is just now starting out.

 

But why?

Many zoos were built in the community and would have been funded / built by social media if it existed in the 80s/70s or earlier

 

When I said in the past, I meant on YouTube so you wouldn't go into the 1980s

 

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheUrbanRescueRanch
https://www.youtube.com/c/ExoticsLair?app=desktop

Do these two count as "YouTubers Who Build Zoos"?

 

I'm not familiar with the second one, but the urban "rescue" ranch certainly interprets the word rescue differently to most!!!

 

So in addition to keeping animals in subpar conditions and having ties with Doc Antle Jacob Feder also has done the following:

1) instead of giving a caught feral burmese python to the authorities, Jacob used the same animal in question as a prop by leaving it in a sewer to make a fake capturing video. This is both releasing an invasive species and transporting without the approvment of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission which no doubt is illegal in Florida.

2) Made a fake rescue video of an iguana with a arrow stuck on its head. The arrow could easily be pulled out (which could be seen as Jacob's friend pushed the arrow into the iguana) but instead Jacob sawed parts of the arrow which is an unnecesarily long process compared to pulling the arrow out.

Here is a video reviewing Jacob's shenanigans in detail. It does get graphic so I may as well put a Trigger Warning.

Pet owners and animal collectors calling themselves rescues is not nothing new and it won't be going away, especially when there is the mindset that keeping animals have to have a noble cause other than "because I like animals."

 

The urban rescue ranch is now a certified wildlife rehab in Texas now. The owner has built/is building some pretty nice facilities and enclosures.

 

Clint's Reptiles! Nice collection, with a huge focus on education.

https://m.youtube.com/@ClintsReptiles


New England Repile! Massive collection featuring numberous rarities, proactive with regards to animal welfare and education too.

https://m.youtube.com/@NewEnglandReptile


The Minkman! A guy who uses American Minks to hunt mice and rats! His minks have luxury enclosures too.

https://m.youtube.com/@JosephCartertheMinkMan


And I highly recommend watching the previously mentioned Snake Discovery channel. Wholesome couple who breed and rescue Dozens of varieties of snakes. They also legitimately have a zoo in their retail store! Their collection includes an American Alligator.

 

Ben from the Urban Rescue Ranch's persona and actions may be offputting for some people but he is genuinely a good guy and cares for his animals well. He does clickbait and have a sort of crazy/funny personality so if you don't enjoy that I wouldn't recommend watching him (his content is mostly targeted to younger people).

He has many 'ambassador' animals, basically pets, some of which are rescues, such as capybaras, prairie dogs, kangaroos, rhea and ostriches amongst others. He is also a proper rehabber now, rescuing birds of prey, and currently some grey foxes. No, he's not really building a zoo but compared to some of the awful people I've seen in this thread he really does care for his animals.