Wildlife Center Should Stay Open

* Re “Financial Woes Will Close Wild Animal Care Facility,” July 20:

I am shocked, saddened and outraged that the city of Huntington Beach is forcing the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Orange County to close.

The city should take great pride in having the only such center in Orange County and do everything possible to keep it open.

Instead of contributing its fair share to support the center, the city is demanding that the center follow bureaucratic city codes that may not even apply to a wetland, which is where the center is located.

Paving over a parking lot that rarely holds more than five or six cars will do more damage than it is worth. It is this type of mentality that contributes to the toxic urban runoff into the ocean and to diminishing the water table.

There is too much pavement as it is. Give me a break. The city is telling the center to pave a 25,000-square-foot parking lot for a place that has no visitors or tours.

It just serves the injured animals. Volunteers have no time to accommodate tourists. They are helping to save the animals, which is more than the city is willing to do.

MARINKA HORACK

Huntington Beach