This is my very honest review. I spent almost $500...

This is my very honest review. I spent almost $500 in the gift shop, so that should tell you about how much I love butterflies. I'm a recent first-generation college graduate from a low-income family that graduated from a top 21 university in the U.S.. I have a huge love and knowledge of all the hard sciences. Butterflies and moths are one of God's most beautiful works of art. The butterflies and the lovely people in the gift shop and entrance save the place. However, there is one man that put a very sour taste in my mouth. I take very care when going to butterfly gardens to not touch the butterflies because I know the powder on their wings is very necessary to their survival and flight. However, when seeing a butterfly falling over on the ground, we informed a worker and he stated that "they die in 2-4 weeks anyways" and to just leave it there. Well that's fine. Later in that same visit, a beautiful blue morpho butterfly landed on me, but since our time was almost up, I was trying to gently coerce it off of me. Well I went up to the same worker and he used his walky talky to pry it off. As soon as I left the door, I saw him pick it up by its wings and throw it distastefully onto the concrete. This disheartens me because the butterflies are not dying gracefully. Instead, it looks like someone is torturing them or causing them to die faster. I might add that this reminds me of serial killers that first start with killing animals and then move onto people. I hope they can help correct this in their staff as these butterflies are live, innocent creatures. The good stuff about this place are the variety or butterflies, the wonderful picturesque area for chrysalis, and the very kind staff that seem very knowledgeable about the taxidermy they do in the gift shop. The butterflies they sell in the frames are more reasonably priced than other places and the quality looks great. I would recommend this place for the butterflies and the taxidermy. However, be aware that the staff might not care as much about the butterflies as you might.