Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Colorado Springs will close in late June.

The Gazette reported Tuesday that the center experienced financial hardship after the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires.

Other rehabilitation facilities around the state have closed in the past. And as a result, the center had taken in a record number of animals last year, draining its finances.

Donna Ralph started the center in 2000 with her husband, Phil Carberry. It operated on donations.

The center’s board had decided in March 2016 to only take in animals from El Paso County, but Ralph says that had been easier said than done.

The center stopped taking animals in late April. Many of the remaining 30 or so have been released back into the wild.

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