Joe and Oliver came to the mountains of North Georgia for the same reason so many of us do. Years of big-city living had taken its toll on them -- both psychologically and physically. Peace awaited them on a pristine 324-acre spread in Morganton, a small community just outside of Blue Ridge in the beautiful North Georgia mountains. A 324-acre spread surrounded by 10,000-volt electic fences, computerized gates and 15-foot high concrete walls.
Joe and Oliver are two of the inhabitants of Gorilla Haven, a primate heaven-on-earth compound. The labor of love of Jane and Steuart Dewar, Gorilla Haven was conceived to house gorillas that have been cast-aside by zoos. Unable to peacefully co-exist with his fellow gorillas, Joe was relegated to solitary confinement in a concrete cell for 10-years. Born at the Bronx Zoo in 1988, Oliver, who was born deaf, was unable to communicate with his fellow gorillas and had to be separated from the others for his own safety.
This remarkable facility -- not open to the public -- has been spotlighted in a wonderful article in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, A Misfit's Sanctuary.
Comments(2)