There is a wolf sanctuary near Lancaster if you end up in that area. 7 might be a bit young though. Make sure to book far ahead because it it fills up. Very cool though.

Maymont Park in Richmond, VA. Beautiful grounds, petting zoo, couple of animal enclosures, nature center. I'm sure they also offer some programs but you can easily spend most of the day wandering around.

Have you considered hippotherapy?

Anonymous wrote:You may want to consider a farm stay in Lancaster. There are tons of places and many let you help with farm chores and interact with the animals.

Rocky Acres farm is a nice B&B (with cows) but they are big.

Catoctin Zoo (up by Frederick, MD) used to have a very low key sleepover (in their very homey/mom and pop) zoo. Not sure if they still do.

Have you taken your child to the farm part of the National Zoo? That is free, so easy to just leave if it does not work out.

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thank you for the suggestions! I should have said that we don’t go to roadside zoos or the like because of concerns about animal cruelty, so I’m looking for established zoos or animal experiences. I always check to see if they are members of the zoological society before we go.

j
We went to the Catoctin zoo last summer. It’s nice and the exhibits are not as spread out as the National zoo, so my kid liked it. We didn’t go on the safari ride but that’s another opportunity to see more animals. They have a huge koi pond where you can feed the fish.