LANSING — Potter Park Zoo officials celebrated the opening of a new $6.5 million facility they say will raise the bar for animal care and education at the nationally accredited zoo on S. Pennsylvania Avenue.
The new facility was built with a mix of public and private funding and has been in the works for years, officials said.
Fundraising for the Animal Health Facility began in September 2021, and groundbreaking happened in May 2024, said Amy Morris-Hall, executive director of the Potter Park Zoological Society. Officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 6.
“The biggest funding came relatively rapidly,” Morris-Hall said, adding that the community values a high level of care for the zoo’s animal residents. “I didn’t get very many no’s on this one.”
The new facility is about 6,000 square feet and houses dedicated surgery and treatment areas, a laboratory, necropsy area and an animal holding area. The zoo previously had only 900 square feet dedicated to all those things.
There are cameras and lights above the operating and treatment tables so veterinary students and the public can view procedures, officials said. The cameras will feed a television monitor mounted outside the building,
“With the help of Dr. Ronan (Eustace), we were able to make a lot out of a little bit of money,” Morris-Hall said. “He did a very good job with that.”
Eustace is the zoo’s director of animal health. Some of the equipment sourced for the new facility was used, Morris-Hall said.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing celebrates new animal health building at Potter Park Zoo
Reporting by Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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