HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — Kids are able to enjoy seeing animals again at Noah's Ark. The animal sanctuary was in quarantine after a bad case of Avian Flu killed hundreds of birds.
The staff said it started with a group of vultures and an uncovered dumpster.
Audrey Hill said she came to work in August 2022 to find 500 dead vultures some of them still falling from the sky.
The state and federal agriculture departments and the Department of Natural Resources shut them down within 24 hours.
The sanctuary was in quarantine for six months. Hill said the assisting agencies decided to euthanize all the free-roaming birds on the property to prevent the spread of the disease.
Kelsie Ali lives near the sanctuary. She said she noticed the impact of the outbreak nearly two years later.
"Unfortunately we see the effects of that now because we miss the little peacocks walking around and the emu's," Ali said.
Hill said they now have a dumpster with a covering and have weekly visits from waste management to prevent another outbreak. But once they got the all clear, they were hit by a tornado and then a massive flood in 2023.
Now, they recently opened their gates to the public in March for things like field trips. Maci Wood is a first-grade teacher from Susie Dasher Elementary in Dublin. She said it would be a missed educational opportunity.
"It would be a loss for people to learn about animal conservation and saving animals, especially animals that do not belong in a household environment some of these animals you know were rescued from people's houses," Wood said.
Hill said the sanctuary is one of the county's top tourist attractions. Wood said they drove an hour and a half just so students could interact with the animals they were learning about.
"It's a porcupine Miss Wood it has quills on its back that was an application of something that we had learn in class and now they get to experience and get that hands on I read about these animals, I know about them, and I get to see them in real life," Wood said.
Ali's commute isn't as bad and she thinks people should take advantage and visit their untraditional neighbors.
"Having this little jewel in our own backyard is kind of like a yeah c'mon we don't have to go far because it's not far. It's not far for us at all so we always get to experience it," Ali said.
Staff members would not go on camera. They said they've faced threats online about their reopening. Despite that, they're ready to invite people back into the sanctuary.