Funny Farm Petting Zoo expands in Berlin with alpacas, camels and yes, even a zonkey

The COVID-19 pandemic brought lasting changes to many families across the Eastern Shore of Maryland. For one family, that change was a farm and a lot of animals.

“I don’t know if anybody remembers, we couldn’t get chicken at the store, so we decided to raise our own meat chickens. It only took eight weeks and then I wanted chickens for eggs, and I wanted all the different colored eggs,” said Tabatha Roberts, owner of Funny Farm Petting Zoo.

It didn’t take much longer before she purchased a baby goat, and then a horse.

Three years later, her Funny Farm has five tortoises, a donkey, a zonkey (a cross between a zebra and a donkey), four horses, two camels, rabbits, alpacas, a little lamb, goats, a water buffalo, chinchillas, sheep, cows, and of course those chickens.

With all the animals, Roberts figured she should do something with them since everybody loved them.

“My neighbors, my nieces, my nephews, my children. They were just wild about the animals. I thought there was nothing around here really like this,” she said.

When the Funny Farm Petting Zoo started, they traveled to schools, birthdays and other events. The demand was high, and they needed to add another truck and trailer to haul their animals to more events.

With all that extra demand Roberts decided to buy property.

“So, we could open a destination location,” she said.

Originally, they bought property out in Whitehaven for the farm, but that didn’t work out for what they needed.

They sold the property in Whitehaven and on April 1, they signed a lease for an old farm in Berlin. It already had barns, and Roberts said it looked like getting the place ready for the animals would be easy.

“But it was an unused farm for like 10-15 years. We definitely have done a lot of work out here. Have a little ways to go still, but we’re almost there,” Roberts said.

Once Funny Farm Petting Zoo opens, it won’t be open to the public, instead only for appointments and events.

“We’ll offer farm tours where you’ll come for about an hour and we’ll walk around the farm,” she said.

They will also host birthday parties in the same way. Visitors to the farm will have the opportunity to pet and feed all the animals.

There will also be other events involving the animals like goat yoga and Tales with Tails.

“We have a mermaid that comes out and reads a tale from a story of how she came from Assateague Island,” Roberts said.

A unicorn will be out for some events too for a mystical appearance.

On Wednesdays, Funny Farm will have comedians out for some hump night humor over the summer. The camels Eli and Bruce will of course be there.

“You’ll get to interact with the camels, we’ll do camel rides and hopefully hear a funny couple of jokes along the way,” she said.

With the variety of animals living at Funny Farm, it is surprising to learn that Roberts did not grow up on a farm herself.

“We had one dog and one cat,” she said. “But raising my family alongside all of these animals and teaching them the responsibility of caring for animals and their health and feeding them and watering them, I think that the farm life is definitely a great thing for families,” she said.

For more information on the farm and its events, visit alpacathezoo.com or Funny Farm Petting Zoo on Facebook.