After 35 years, the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn has latched its gates.
The game ranch is the home of Georgia's four-legged Groundhog Day forecaster General Beauregard Lee. This incarnation of the state groundhog has been predicting Georgia weather for 17 years.
CBS46 reports the current landowner and former YRGR business owner Art Rilling has offered to take 'The General' to a rural location to allow him to comfortably live out his retirement.
Rilling said he has remained close to the current business owner and said in recent years, the ranch has been plauqued with very low attendence. He blames negative publicity brought on by animal rights groups.
Rilling said for more that three decades, the ranch has been a refuge for wounded and discarded animals and, in many cases, the animals were nursed back to health and re-released into the wild.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports there are many current staffers who have offered to stay on until homes can be found for the remaining animals.
