animals

After several years of planning and overcoming financial hurdles, construction is set to start this month on San Luis Obispo County’s new regional, public animal services facility.

Zoos in California are welcoming the public back after being closed since mid-March. The gates of Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero reopened Wednesday, and director Alan Baker said it’s great seeing visitors again, since it was a bit eerie being at the zoo without visitors for so long.

A conversation with Heather O’Connor, a Morro Bay artist who specializes in the illustration of birds and other animals. 

Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles is a 120-acre property that not only grows wine grapes, but houses animals as well. A flock of sheep at Tablas Creek helps maintain a farming process called Biodynamics.

The goal of the process is to help a vineyard function more efficiently.  It's “a practical way of removing weeds in the vineyard," said Levi Glenn, the vineyard's viticulturist. He says this is the number one benefit of having a flock of sheep roaming around the property.