Life long Gulf Shores resident and entrepreneur Clyde Weir and his daughter Andrea Weir Franklin, owners of the Souvenir City shops in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, have just donated a large tract of land to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo. The donation will allow the Zoo and park to relocate to an area less likely to be affected by inclement weather such as that which forced the zoo's evacuation last year.
The property is 25 acres in northern Gulf Shores. It will be a welcome change from the low-lying plot near the Gulf of Mexico where the zoo had been located.
Gulf Shores has certainly been good to us and in return we want to do something for the community.
Clyde Weir and his daughter Andrea Weir Franklin are avid animal lovers and expressed great concern for the well-being of the zoo animals.
The zoo had received nation wide attention in a recent 13 week series on Animal Planet. The series entitled The Little Zoo That Could, chronicled the zoo's efforts to evacuate animals from the zoo three times in 14 months for Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Katrina. The shows underscored the zoo's need to relocate to a better location in the Gulf Shores area.
Build-out of the new zoo is expected to begin in 2007.