LCSO steps in to help Shell Factory animals relocate after closure

For 86 years, the Shell Factory served the people in North Fort Myers. It gave the community a chance to experience nature up close, but it closed down last month.

That meant many of their animals needed to be relocated.

Where some people saw a problem, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office saw an opportunity.

• RELATED: Shell Factory in North Fort Myers closes

They decided to take some of the animals and keep them local, staying at Sheriff Carmine Marceno‘s Nan’s Ranch.

“Recently, with the Shell Factory closing, we’ve been in discussion a lot with the owner of the Shell Factory, and over 400 animals had to be really relocated, so we had an opportunity, and we wanted to help the Shell Factory,” Marceno said.

Nan’s Ranch is a working animal ranch run by LCSO and maintained by non-violent inmates.

The ranch took in eight animals from the shell factory: two lemurs, two kudamaundi, two albino turtles, one bare-eyed cockatoo and one three-banded armadillo.

The program teaches inmates new skills, as they care for many animals.

“They absolutely love it. They come out. They love the animals. They feed them every day. It is a prize for them to be able to come out and just work on the ranch,” said first-class deputy Angela Taylor, LCSO.

Marceno spoke about the next steps for the animals.

“We have to adapt them to their new environment and also have people that can understand how to work with them, to feed them, to take care of them, so it’s been a little bit of a process, but it’s been a great process. It’s been seamless, and again, to keep these animals home here in Lee County is the real win,” he said.

Now, these former Shell Factory Nature Park residents have found their forever home at Nan’s Ranch.