Wildlife Rehab Center in Ogden has until September to move
May 30, 2023, 6:48 PM | Updated: May 31, 2023, 7:26 pm
The old Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah building before the September deadline. (KSL TV/Mark Less)
(KSL TV/Mark Less)
WEBER COUNTY, Utah — Time is running out for injured animals at a rehabilitation center in Ogden to get better.
The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah will have to leave its building by Sept. 6. Because of the looming deadline, workers say they can no longer accept injured animals from people and organizations who bring them in.
“For me personally, it is crushing to have to turn the phone off and just not talk to people because I know what is happening,” Erin Adams, who works at the wildlife rehabilitation center said. “I know what those animals and those people are going through. That is the entire purpose of our organization.”
Ogden City owns the building the wildlife center is located in. City leaders have plans to tear down the building to make room for a parking lot for the Dinosaur Park next door.
In a contract between the two sides, the city says having the wildlife center located in the old animal services building since 2010 was always a temporary arrangement.
However, there is the possibility to extend that deadline another six months if the wildlife center administrators meet certain criteria.
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Those parameters include showing Ogden City leaders that the center has obtained another building to move into with at least a 5-year lease, as well as all the necessary permits to house wildlife in a new building.
“We are trying to do that, but I don’t know if we can find a place suitable within the next four months,” Adams said.
During the public comments portion of an Ogden City Council meeting earlier this month, some people spoke out in favor of the wildlife center and asked elected leaders to find a better solution.
“Isn’t there any way to give them some money to help them move? I have been taking birds there for years,” Teresa Holmes said during public comments. “Do you guys remember the old Joni Mitchell song, ‘they paved paradise, they put up a parking lot’?”
Holmes sang the lyrics to city council members. Others said the center provides a necessary function in society.
“If we get rid of that rehabilitation center, it is going to be a blight on the history of this city,” Leticia Dornfeld said during the city council meeting.
