ATLANTA -- At more than 300 pounds, you wouldn’t think Liberty would be quite as stealthy as she is.
First, she peeks from behind a tree as she listens to the approaching humans talk about the inane subjects that animate their daily lives. Next, she creeps quietly behind a tuft of grass tall enough to hide all but the top of her furry head and ears. Moments later, she crosses a bridge to take cover in a grove of pines.
Then the lioness disappears.
“There she is,” Audrey Hill, director of development of Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary, says just before the 11-year-old African cat vanishes again. “She’s stalking us right now. She’s behind that tree.”
Michelle “Shelly” Lakly, the sanctuary’s president, sees her, too. Smiling, she says, “Liberty is terrifying. She’ll rush us. This is her favorite game.”
Almost a year has passed since a bird flu outbreak forced the longtime Henry County, Georgia, attraction to euthanize close to 150 peacocks, emus, ducks, chickens and ostriches and close its doors in a state-mandated five-month quarantine.
The shutdown brought with it lawsuits from animals rights groups hoping to put a spotlight on what they see as Noah’s Ark’s failures in protecting their vulnerable charges. And it dealt a blow to the group’s revenue stream, raising questions about its ability to provide for its animals in the future.
Today, Noah’s Ark officials are quietly booking limited entrance to see Liberty and the almost 300 other animals that remain in their care.
On hand are Sheila the tiger, Elvis the capuchin monkey, Big Al the alligator, Baloo the American black bear and the dozens and dozens of parrots that have long been fan favorites of the 250-acre reserve. (None of the parrots were euthanized after the H1N1 virus was discovered, Noah’s Ark leaders said).
It’s a first step, Lakly said, to an anticipated full opening in the fall when the sanctuary in Locust Grove hopes to have improved infrastructure in place, such as new paths, resurfaced walking areas and updates to some of the animals’ habitats.
“We are a huge part of Henry County tourism,” Hill said. “We create a lot of revenue for the county with people coming up and down the interstate. We are needed.”
Opponents, including the family of its founder, Jama Hedgecoth, her supporters and animal rights groups, say not so fast. Since last fall, they have battled Noah’s Ark in court and through protests after the sanctuary board voted in September to remove Hedgecoth, who founded the sanctuary in 1978 to care for injured, abused and orphaned animals, from the organization.
In June, Ohio-based nonprofit Outreach for Animals and former Noah’s Ark veterinarian Dr. Karen Thomas filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta accusing the sanctuary of violating the federal Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit alleges Noah’s Ark has failed to adequately feed, house and care for around 60 animals — including tigers, macaws, cockatoos, a lion, a bear, a Lar gibbon and two spider monkeys.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones, a vocal critic of Noah’s Ark leaders, said he is concerned about safety at the facility. He alleged that an alligator got out of its enclosure recently, sparking worries that the sanctuary has issues far greater than updating a few habitats.
“They want to paint a narrative that everything is well and hunky dory, when in fact it really isn’t,” the Stockbridge Democrat said. “We have heard from people on the inside who tell us a different story about the treatment of the animals.”
Noah’s Ark, which has hired Alston & Bird, one of Atlanta’s top law firms, has denied all the allegations, arguing that opponents have filed a series of lawsuits and lost. Sanctuary officials accused opponents of launching a “scorched earth” campaign to regain control of the facility, instead of engaging in reasonable discussions about the animals’ care.
“Any allegations that an alligator escaped at Noah’s Ark is 100% false and untrue,” Hill said.
Culling the heard
In mid-August, black vultures started dying on Noah’s Ark’s premises, the first sign that something was terribly wrong.
Lakly said the sanctuary is a lot different today. The detection of the bird flu led to officials in full hazardous materials suits combing every inch of property for weeks trying to root out the virus, destroying everything from peacock feathers to bird eggs.
“A feather was as bad as a dead bird,” she said.
Everything that entered and left the property had to be sanitized, she said, including the tires of employee cars. Even the grass couldn’t be cut for eight weeks because the machinery would have had to be sanitized over and over, making it more difficult to collect the feathers.
“You can imagine that at that time of year things got overgrown,” Hill said. “There were people who said Noah’s Ark had gone downhill because of that.”
At that time, the sanctuary had hundreds more animals — it listed as many as 1,500 on its website — and its willingness to take in any injured or unwanted beast became unsustainable, Lakly said.
After state and federal officials lifted the quarantine in February, Noah’s Ark began finding new homes for the horses, sheep, goats, pigs and llamas that had roamed free for years with little attention in an 80-acre pasture on the property, she said. Many of the animals were taken in by other sanctuaries and animal rescue groups.
“It was almost akin to a hoarding situation,” she said. “Our future is exotics. Many places can take care of horses, goats and pigs. But not many places can take care of a tiger or a lion or a bear.”
The euthanizing of the peacocks, chickens and other feathery birds after the bird flu was detected also left the grounds a lot quieter as the avians no longer saunter carefree.
“When the authorities came and told us they had to euthanize some of the birds on the property, including the emus, the peacocks, the ducks, the chickens, the hens, we were just devastated,” Hill said. “They were our work friends. The free-roaming birds on the property, like the peacocks, greeted us every day.”
Hill said the sanctuary hopes to reintroduce peacocks in November.
Rocky future
If the sanctuary reopens in the fall, it will have a lot of ground to make up. Attendance, which reached 150,000 visitors in 2019, fell to 133,000 in 2020 and 128,000 in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the sanctuary reported. Last year it cratered to about 21,000 visitors amid the bird flu outbreak.
That has left the sanctuary’s finances in critical condition. The nonprofit, which does not receive government funding and is free to visit, relies on donations for operational and food costs. It costs about $33,000 per month to feed and care for the animals, according to sanctuary leaders.
Glenn Ross, chairman of the sanctuary’s all-volunteer board of directors, said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shortly after the outbreak that the longer the facility is closed, the bleaker its finances will look.
“With no visitation from people coming on site and without the gift shop, we are probably somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 a year short,” he said.
In 2022, the sanctuary reported almost $2 million in total revenue, including contributions and grants, according to its most recent Internal Revenue Service financial disclosure reviewed by the AJC. However, it had expenses of just over $2 million, for a net loss of about $72,000.
Noah’s Ark applied for and received a federal Paycheck Protection Plan loan for $130,800 to compensate for its losses during COVID-19, officials said. The loan, like many during the height of the coronavirus, has been forgiven.
Lakly and Hill said the sanctuary is seeking new revenue streams, including corporate sponsorships, to help them rebuild. They also are considering renting the pasture where the horses once roamed for events, such as festivals and hot-air balloon celebrations. And for the first time they are considering charging an entrance fee.
When the visitors come back, Liberty the lioness will be waiting behind her double-fenced enclosure. Lakly said jumping out from the bushes is not only fun for her, it keeps her in shape. Because her habitat is large and stretches to two different parts of the sanctuary, she can pounce at the same visitors twice.
“When we had the public here, she’d run down and chase visitors down here and then run up there and chase them again,” Lakly said. “She got a lot of exercise. Without the public, she’s put on some weight so we’ve got her on a weight plan.”
