Ellerbe woman transports new toys to lions, tigers and bears
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
Rescuing a bowling ball from the landfill doesn’t have quite the noble ring to it some other tasks might have attached, but that didn’t deter an Ellerbe woman from doing just that.
Dianne Emanuel had a far greater destination — and sense of repurpose — for 14 bowling balls Mike Hill at Striker’s Bowling Center was about to send to the dump. Instead, Hill agreed to donate them to Noah’s Ark, an exotic animal rescue near Atlanta, Ga.
Submitted photo
Charlie Hedgecoth, Noah’s Ark assistant director, left, stands with Dianne Emmannuel and Ron Kanode during a visit to the Georgia animal sanctuary.
Emanuel agreed to drive the bowling balls there. Last week, she and husband Ron Kanode made the delivery to the sanctuary in Locust Grove.
Emanuel said Hill was in the middle of a remodeling project at the bowling alley and had already taken 40 bowling balls to the dump.
“He started saving the balls for me,” she said. “I got in touch with Noah’s Ark. They were real excited about it.”
Unlike soccer balls or other household items that can be shredded in minutes by the animals, bowling balls have a longer shelf life at Noah’s Ark.
Emanuel and Kanode drove the five-hour journey last week. She had lived in Atlanta for some 20 years and had never heard of Noah’s Ark, but began following the private group’s animal rescue efforts on social media after a few friends pointed her in that direction.
Emmanuel said the sanctuary in real life is everything the website and Facebook page promises.
“That place is so wonderful,” Emanuel said. “Every animal was rescued from some abusive situation. They now live in this beautiful park-like setting.”
A Noah’s Ark photo
BLT — Baloo, Leo and Shere Khan — were rescued from the basement of an Atlanta drug house when the animals were only a few months old. They have bonded and share the same enclosure in the 250-acre sanctuary.
Perhaps the sanctuary’s most famous trio is BLT – Baloo the black bear, Leo the African lion and Shere Khan the Bengal tiger. The three were brought to Noah’s Ark in 2001 by Georgia Department of Natural Resources personnel after they were discovered by police during a drug raid in the basement of an Atlanta home. The animals were only a few months old at the time and not well-taken care of.
At the sanctuary, the three are inseparable. As Baloo came down from the “clubhouse” inside the animals’ expansive enclosure, Shere Khan simply couldn’t bear the thought of Baloo having divided loyalties. The 700-pound bear took a position under a tree and “low and behold, the tiger … here he comes, trottin’ over to mark his bear” by chuffing, or a slight grunting noise.
“They’re in a 2-acre cage and yet, you’ll never find them more than a few yards from each other,” Emanuel said. “They hang out together all the time.”
Noah’s Ark was founded in 1978 and remains a family-owned and operated nonprofit on a 250-acre parcel. There is no admission fee to see the animals, but donations are accepted.
The money goes back to the animals. It costs approximately $33,000 each month to feed all the lions, tigers, bears, birds, foxes, wolves, primates and more.
The sanctuary does not breed any animal; each is spayed or neutered as soon as its health permits.
