Parenting: Preschoolers

A trip to a petting zoo or farm animal exhibit can be a fascinating outing for your child. Meeting and touching a goat, calf or rabbit is the kind of hands-on learning experience upon which small children thrive. Unfortunately, there can be a downside to these animal encounters. If you're not careful, your child could come home from a petting zoo with germs that can make her sick.

In the past few years, several outbreaks of serious illness have been associated with petting zoos and other exhibits where children come in direct contact with animals. In the year 2000, 51 people, most of them young children, became sick after touching animals at a farm exhibit in Pennsylvania; 16 of them had to be hospitalized. In Ontario in 1999, at least 159 people came down with diarrhea after touching goats at a petting zoo. In both of these instances, E. coli was identified as the cause of the illnesses. However, E. coli is not the only germ that can be spread by animals in petting zoos. Pigs, reptiles and birds (including chicks and ducklings), can carry Salmonella. A variety of animals, including cattle, deer and sheep, can carry the parasite Cryptosporidium. In rare cases, contact with petting zoo animals can even put people at risk for rabies. In 1996, about 400 people in New York State had to have shots to prevent rabies after coming in contact with a rabid goat at a local fair.

Taking Precautions
Does this mean that you should cross petting zoos off your list of family outings? Experts say no. They do advise, however, that you take precautions to minimize the risk that anyone in your family will get sick.

"Hand washing is the number one way to prevent illness," says Melanie Pien, owner of Pied Piper Pony Rides, a company that supplies pony rides and petting zoos for birthday parties and other special events in Fairfield County, Conn. and Westchester County, N.Y. Whenever Pien arranges a party, she puts a clause in the contract asking the client to make hand washing facilities available for the children after they come in contact with the animals and before they go on to any other activity. She also enforces hand washing rules for her own two children when they're around her animals.

"When my kids are done at the barn, they are not allowed to do anything until they wash with soap and water," Pien says. "And I am constantly reminding them around the barn not to touch their faces or put their hands near their mouths."

The New York State Department of Health would approve of Pien's precautions. They recommend that hand-to-mouth activities such as eating, drinking, smoking and carrying toys and pacifiers should be forbidden in animal contact areas. They also say that hand washing is the single most effective way to minimize the chance of acquiring an intestinal infection from animals, and they recommend that running water, soap and paper towels should be available within and next to all animal contact areas at petting zoos.

Unfortunately, these facilities aren't always available – especially at temporary or seasonal exhibits such as fairs and farm tours. I ran into this problem several years ago when I helped escort my son's nursery school class on a field trip to a farm animal exhibit in New Jersey. After the children petted the lambs, milked the cow and chased the chickens around their pen, the staff escorted us directly to the picnic area, without giving us a chance to clean up.

The adults in our group responded to this situation exactly the way you might expect: We all pulled baby wipes out of our diaper bags and used them to clean our hands and our children's hands before lunch. Baby wipes really aren't adequate, though. "Baby wipes and gel sanitizers have not been officially sanctioned as being able to kill the germs that might be on children's hands after attending a petting zoo," Pien says. Washing hands with soap and water is preferable.

Too Young?
Keeping your child's hands away from his mouth while he's in animal contact areas is very important. But this can be difficult to accomplish with some young children. If your child constantly puts his fingers in his mouth or if he can't live without his pacifier, you may want to consider postponing your family's visit to a petting zoo until he is a bit older. You may also want to think twice about taking your child to a petting zoo if you will have to supervise other children at the same time. Your child needs to be watched at every moment when he's around animals.

One other precaution that you may want to take before visiting a petting zoo is to find out whether the animals are healthy and well cared for. "Parents can protect their children by making sure that the petting zoo they visit or hire to come to their home is certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture," says Pien. If a zoo is USDA certified, it means that the owners have met government standards for the proper care of their animals.

It's also a good idea to ask whether the animals have a regular source of veterinary care, whether they have received all the recommended immunizations (such as rabies shots), and whether they are removed from the exhibit if they show any sign of illness. Sick animals and those too young to be immunized against rabies should never be included in exhibits where people have direct contact with animals, according to the New York State Department of Health. It's important to remember, however, that even healthy animals from USDA-certified zoos can carry germs that cause human diseases. That's why sanitary precautions and supervision are essential, even at the best-run petting zoos.