Powered by staff, interns and more than 500 volunteers, WRC turns everyday disruptions into lifesaving care for over 23,000 animals each year

By Cecilia Wallace — Environmental Reporter (celiadw016@gmail.com)

Located on the east side of Roseville lies a center of superheroes—people from many backgrounds, all with a common passion: animals. 

The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was founded at the University of Minnesota in 1979 and has since become the “world’s busiest animal hospital,” admitting more than 23,000 patients annually.

It’s a special place— one so special that WRC Executive Director, Tami Vogel, is entering her 24th year at the center. She started as a volunteer, became the communications director in 2004, and entered her executive director role in 2023.

“The board hired a search firm, and they did a national search,” Vogel said. “I tossed my hat into the ring and got lucky enough to get the position.”

In addition to Vogel, the center is made up of 31 year-round staff members, 13 seasonal staff to run the nurseries, 70 summer interns and more than 500 volunteers.

The volunteers at WRC handle many essential tasks: they help keep the hospital clean, feed the patients, do dishes and handle laundry. Most volunteers are seasonal and support daily operations, especially during the busy nursery season.

“We have students who are here with us because they go to vet school or they want to go into wildlife biology or wildlife conservation, and then we have retirees who, for years wanted to do something with animals, and now that they have more time in their schedules, they can be here with us,” Vogel said. “Our volunteers range in age, from 13 on up into their 80s.”

With the weather getting increasingly colder, the volunteers and other WRC staff must adjust their animal care protocols. The cold means creatures creeping indoors, ones like bats, snakes and more—ones that can’t be released back outdoors in these temperatures.

“Our patients are found in homes or in buildings or somewhere indoors, in the garage, maybe, but they can’t be released back outside,” Vogel said. “Those patients come to us, we overwinter, and we’ll release them in the spring.”

Another animal that WRC sees more of in the winter as Minnesota faces the harsh cold is opossums. 

“Opossums do struggle a little bit, and it’s because they have naked paws,” Vogel said. “Their ears are naked, and then they have the very interesting prehensile tail, and that is also naked, so oftentimes we’ll see opossums come in with frostbite.”

Minnesota residents may see bloody paw prints beneath their bird feeders, which is a tell-tale sign that an opossum may be suffering from frostbite. 

“If they are able to trap that opossum, they can bring it into us,” Vogel said.

Throughout Vogel’s time at WRC, she has seen a rise in the number of animals being brought in.

“I would have to go back and see what our admits were when I first started here, but I would guess they were under 6,000 or right around 6,000,” Vogel said. “Big change from 6,000 to more than 23,000. We broke 23,000 a week or two ago.”

Vogel attributes this rise in animals being brought in to word of mouth— people who may not have known about the center hearing about it from someone else.

“When I was growing up, there weren’t rehabilitation centers,” Vogel said. “There may have been someone down the street that knew how to take care of a robin, but there weren’t licensed rehab centers.”

WRC has become so widespread that even people beyond Minnesota have reached out.

“We have people who call us from across the nation who don’t realize that they’re calling somewhere in Minnesota because they’ve put in ‘injured snake’,” Vogel said. “We pop up, and Google just gives you the option to call, so we’ll be five minutes into a conversation with them, and then we’ll find out that they’re in upstate New York. We then help them connect with a rehabber closer.”

Although WRC sees animals from all over, Roseville has some patients of its own.

“This year alone, we’ve had 674 patients come to us from within Roseville, and in the past three years, 2,400 citizens from Roseville have brought us patients, and we have two patients from Roseville currently in care,” Vogel said. “We have a tree frog and a flying squirrel, and both of those will be with us through the winter.”

After more than two decades at the center, Vogel has seen firsthand how a single act of care can ripple across generations, shaping how people view wildlife and their role in protecting it.

“No one wakes up in the morning planning to make a trip to us, right?” Vogel said. “It’s not like you’re waking up in the morning saying ‘I’m going to find an injured wild animal,’ so everyone who comes to us is doing it as a disruption to their schedule.”

From opossums under bird feeders to bats in basements, this collective compassion of people setting everything aside to care for an animal in need is the true measurement of WRC’s impact.

“We’re really seeing our mission at work in carving compassion and teaching it to future generations,” Vogel said.