Naturalist Hanna joins effort to build Fulton wildlife hospital

Published on: 11/18/07

Famed naturalist Jack Hanna will be at the Georgia Aquarium early next year to help raise money for a wildlife hospital planned for southwest Fulton County.

Hanna, host of the show "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures," said he will attend a Jan. 18 gala benefiting GROW, or the Georgia Rehabilitation of Wildlife Hospital and Clinical Research Center.

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Jack Hanna, one of America's best-loved animal experts, plans to help raise funds to build a wildlife hospital in Fulton County.

The event, featuring cocktails, dinner and live/silent auction, will take place at the aquarium's Oceans Ballroom from 6 to 10 p.m.

GROW is a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise $3.5 million to build a wildlife hospital in south Fulton County.

It would be Georgia's first specialized facility that provides professional medical care to wildlife that has become sick, injured or orphaned as a result of human activity.

"I'm thrilled to support GROW's effort to build Georgia's first wildlife specialist veterinary hospital," Hanna said in a prepared release. "With areas like metro Atlanta expanding by the minute, we're seeing more wild animals pushed into urban environments where many become injured."

"Because of Atlanta's rapid sprawl, we are losing some of our most beautiful wildlife like the raccoon, fox and bobcat as nuisance animals," Brenda Hudlow, GROW's executive director, said in a statement.

"They are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

GROW also will serve as a training center for students at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. Research would focus on rabies-prone species such as foxes, bats, raccoons, bobcats and skunks.



   Click here to read an article from South Fulton Neighbor about The GROW Center