Wildheart Animal Sanctuary

We have visited the zoo (Now WildHeart Animal Sanctuary) many times. I have visited whilst able bodied, in a wheelchair and using a mobility scooter. Whilst able bodied we paid the car park fee like everyone else. Once I became disabled and had a blue badge we decided to park across the road in the council car park which is free to badge holders. On our last visit, on exiting, we saw that the zoo car park is now free to Blue Badge holders, so one move in the right direction. There is a new entrance but it is still a steep slope and only one door was unlocked. It was not wide enough for either my chair or scooter (Which is average size) so it required someone to open the other door. This took some time. When paying for tickets, I wasn't asked for any documentation and have never been asked to show anything. But we do always carry this info with us. The zoo paths are as the other reviewers have described, broken concrete and deep gravel. In a wheelchair, a route around needs to be carefully planned. Some areas are too sleep or deep for someone to manage to push a wheelchair up or through. A scooter copes better but the deep gravel in the lion viewing area is far too deep even for Bessie (My scooter) However the lions can been seen around the other side which is where they normally hang out anyway. If they are on the rocks near the viewing area, they are high enough up to be able to see from a bit further back. Whilst most of the paths are manageable, don't expect a smooth ride. But some areas have been worked on so hopefully it will all get a makeover eventually. I agree that the fencing makes taking decent photos hard but this is the same whether standing or in a wheelchair as the fences are quite high (Thankfully) There is an indoor disabled toilet in the cafe. This gets used by anyone and everyone who is in the cafe. I used it once but it had a rather pungent smell that wasn't pleasant so I avoid if possible. There is another outside with the 'normal' toilets. This is also shared with baby changing but I've only had to wait once. The door doesn't close properly and I'm never quite sure if the lock actually works. The room is full of spiders, so I make my visits as brief as possible. I have some mobility so if I think I'm up to it I'll use the ladies toilets which are up 3 or 4 steps. Despite the zoo not being particularly wheelchair friendly, I always manage to see all the animals except the koi fish as the glass is always filthy and even standing up I'm not tall enough to see over the tank. All staff we encountered were pleasant.

The Isle of Wight Zoo is a small zoo, a family run charity that does an awful lot for wildlife protection and provides a sanctuary for rescued animals, mainly lions and tigers but also primates and some smaller animals but is mostly inaccessible to wheelchair users.

Upon arrival the first thing to encounter is a steep concrete slope from reception into the main park, I struggled to hold my chair back and the slope is too higher a gradient for someone to hold a wheelchair back from rolling safely. The pathways around the park are mostly broken concrete with plenty of pot holes to catch front wheelchair castors in. The majority of the animal enclosures have areas of bark chippings or turf from the pathway to the fencing ranging from 3-10 feet, these areas are very difficult to maneuver even for a seasoned active wheelchair user like myself. If you can get close to an enclosure then you are met by a 4ft secondary fencing which is quite thick in it's construction and obscures vision considerably, so much so it was impossible to capture any decent photographs of the animals. The lion enclosure viewing area was impossible to get to as the access is made of deep gravel and on a hill.