Ed Horvath, the "Dr. Doolittle" of Price who last summer had to close his backyard animal hospital, is back in business.
Dentist Paul B. Martinez has agreed to lease 95 acres of ranch property on the outskirts of East Carbon City for $95 a year and has deeded 5 acres outright for a new facility."It's nice to know there are people like (Martinez) in the community," Horvath said. "He has made a lot of people happy."
Martinez was deer hunting and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Horvath is applying for grants and seeking private contributions for the new facility, which he said would comply with federal and state laws for treating endangered species.
The ranch land is ideal, Horvath said, because "it is far enough away from town that the animals won't bother people and the people won't bother the injured animals."
Many of his patients are birds of prey that have been shot, hit by vehicles or injured on power poles.
Horvath - who is certified to care for the animals but is not a veterinarian - had been treating up to 200 injured animals a year in his backyard hospital called the Castle Country Wildlife Center.
He cobbled the facility together with donated materials. Some of his coops were two stories tall, and smaller cages made of planks and wire surrounded the yard. It was the only certified wildlife rehabilitation center in the eastern part of the state.
Neighbors began to complain last summer of the smell and the practice of raising pheasant, chukars, quail and rabbits to feed the recuperating birds.
The City Council stepped in and sided with the neighbors. In July, they gave Horvath 90 days to close down his operation.