OGDEN, Utah, Sept. 7, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah has been granted a reprieve from its eviction this week.
The center posted on its website and Facebook page that Ogden City in a letter Tuesday from the city attorney extended Wednesday’s eviction date to March 7. The center met the terms for upgrading a temporary site, pending a business license, that it purchased in June at 332 Washington Blvd., the letter says.
Volunteers have been remodeling the new location, a vacant commercial site, while donations have been flooding in for eventual permanent quarters for the center, which treats thousands of injured animals a year.
The center was effusive in announcing the news on social media of its “new beginning.”
“Take a moment with us to breathe in deeply, celebrate a little, and then, we must again keep our sleeves rolled up … and continue with our dream to find that forever home we all want and our Utah Wildlife deserves.
“Thank you ALL for each piece you have helped with, again, I repeat, this is not over, but we have reason to celebrate today!
“Thank you to all of our supporters (new and old)!
“Please continue to stand by us as we work towards the ‘the end all be all’, a permanent slice of land to house our rehabilitating animals, our Education Ambassadors; a facility that will allow us to rehabilitate our patients better than ever with space to bring in and educate the Community about the importance of wildlife in our lives and keeping the crucial habitat wildlife needs to survive in today’s difficult world.”
On Aug. 2, the center announced it had received an anonymous $100,000 donation, and by Aug. 22, its building fund for a permanent site had topped $400,000.
Comedian and television personality Bill Engvall, who had contacted the center in 2019 for advice on an injured Great Horned Owl he’d adopted, has agreed to donate the proceeds to the center from an Oct. 7 show scheduled for Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City.
Last March, Ogden City startled the center with its announcement of the Sept. 6 eviction notice from its home of 12 years at 1490 Park Blvd.
The city plans to demolish the rehab facility in order to expand the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park next door.
The rehabilitation center for injured wild birds and small animals is the only one of its kind in northern Utah, among only a handful in the state and believed the largest. It provides state and federal officials a treatment site for wildlife.
