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Indiana has lost one of its premier animal advocates and animal educators. Larry Battson, known widely as The Animal Guy, passed away Sept. 1 from complications of Parkinson's Disease.
For 45 years, Larry and his wife Cheryl traveled to several states to educate the public about wildlife, specializing in Indiana schools. Their beautiful exotic animal collection included bears, tigers, lemurs, wolves, cougars and his very special pet, Elizabeth the baboon.
They also appeared often on the WISH-TV news, where Patty Spitler and Eric Halvorson gave his rattlesnake a wide berth!
Larry also was an accomplished animal artist and an expert on Bigfoot.
Larry's death leaves Cher with many animals to care for.
"Larry started collecting donations through his Venmo and PayPal accounts recently," says his son, Mark Dunn. "This helps for payments for the many crafts and art commissions they've done over the years and to fund the care of their beautiful animal educators.
"Since Larry's Parkinson's diagnosis a few years ago, and the pandemic shutdown, they looked for other ways to provide wildlife education to schools without being able to appear in person. ZOOM classroom programs and a series of streamed content gave Larry and Cher an opportunity to continue doing what they loved to do together and raise funds to help cover the cost of the retired animal educators in their care.
"Cher is now caring for their animal family on her own, and any help folks can provide is greatly appreciative in honor of a man who dedicated his life to wildlife education for children and adults across the country."
Follow Larry the Animal Guy and Friends on Facebook and @LarryBattson on YouTube. (New content coming soon.)
To make a donation on Venmo, click here: https://account.venmo.com/u/larry-battson
To donate on PayPal, click here: https://paypal.me/LBattsonFamily?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
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