Centre Wildlife Care is running out of space. How an expansion could help more animals
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Centre Wildlife Care reached capacity in June 2025, briefly halting admissions.
- Founder Robyn Graboski seeks $500K in donations to build a second facility.
- Volunteer staff treat hundreds of animals daily, using repurposed structures for support.
Skunks, hawks, opossums and squirrels. Those are just some of the hundreds of wild animals under rehabilitation at Centre Wildlife Care — the only wildlife rescue facility in Centre County.
With spring and summer being its busiest seasons, the Worth Township facility receives upward of 30 animals a day from community members. People who find sick, injured or orphaned animals can seek advice from Centre Wildlife Care, which will also take in those animals as space allows.
Even with multiple structures spread across the 15-acre facility, Centre Wildlife Care reached maximum capacity on June 8, which forced them to temporarily close their doors until they could free up space. The facility is accepting animals again, but certain animals, like raccoons, are still being turned away due to a lack of space.
“Until we have more space, we can’t continue to take animals when we’re full,” said Robyn Graboski, the executive director and founder of Centre Wildlife Care. “Because then we turn into hoarders, you know, and that’s not humane or ethical.”
Graboski and her husband bought the property back in 2006 and built it out from there. Like many animal rehab facilities, Centre Wildlife Care is also Graboski’s home — the fully finished clinic, fit with all the necessary equipment, is in her basement.
A home-based clinic is more affordable, but without a proper succession plan, these facilities shut down once the owner retires. The only solution to getting more space and keeping Centre Wildlife Care open after she retires, Graboski said, is a second facility.
So far, they’ve scouted for land but haven’t secured anything. And funding remains the biggest obstacle for the organization that is entirely donation-funded.
“A new building would at least cost a half a million dollars,” Graboski said, noting that as of June, roughly $20,000 has been set aside for the project.
Volunteers critical to operations
In the meantime, Graboski and her team of 70 volunteers are doing their best to work with the facility they have now. Along with a repurposed school bus to carry supplies and a gutted-out 1980s police communications station that’s now used for food storage, volunteers are chipping in extra hours to meet the demand.
“I do stay extra hours if we’re really busy,” said Lynn Sanderson, a Centre Wildlife Care volunteer and retired veterinarian. At the facility, Sanderson volunteers his expertise to assess the animals’ conditions and provide preventative care. Sanderson drives an hour, once a week from Johnstown, to volunteer at the facility.
“I had seen Robin on TV and knew this facility was up here and heard all the good work she was doing, so I wanted to lend my hand,” he said.
Sanderson has a career’s worth of experience as a small animal veterinarian, but his wildlife expertise is limited. That’s when Graboski comes in. With her over 30 years of wildlife experience, the two support each other to ensure the animals get adequate care.
“He has a lot more experience in doing physical exams and knows more of the things that a veterinarian would be looking for, as opposed to me,” Graboski said. “So it’s nice to have him on board to help us out.”
With his expertise, Sanderson could conduct minor surgery on the wildlife that need it. But, due to the limited space — and funds — at the facility, Graboski can’t purchase the machinery needed for the operations.
For that reason, her dream new facility would have a dedicated surgery suite — along with an indoor receiving area, educational area and of course, more space.
“I’d like this to be overflow and a place for education animals,” she said. “And then have another facility that starts out as rehabilitation and grows into an environmental center where people can visit.”
At the current facility, many of the animals are either sick, orphaned or injured. Injuries vary in severity, but those from car collisions are common. Residents who find such animals are advised to call Centre Wildlife Care at 814-692-0004 to assess the situation. If it’s determined that the animal requires rehabilitation, the facility will provide instructions on how to safely transport the animal.
Once an animal is fully rehabilitated — a process that takes a month on average — they’re then released back into the wild. Releases usually take place every week. Residents who transport an animal to the facility can also receive updates on the animal’s status via email.
Some animals, however, aren’t able to survive in the wild. Instead, these “education animals,” as Graboski calls them, are used to educate the community on wildlife. One of those is Andromeda, a red-tailed hawk who was hit by a car and is now blind in her right eye and unable to properly hunt.
“She’s one of our best education animals because she’s so mild and so even-keeled,” Graboski said.
Along with educational animals, Graboski and her staff support the community in other ways.
As a Penn State alumna herself, her facility provides training for many PSU interns, volunteers and work-study students throughout the year. Her facility also works closely with PSU researchers, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Wildlife Futures Program to test wildlife for diseases like COVID, rabies, highly pathogenic avian influenza and more.
“One of the services that we provide to the community is rabies vaccines for humans,” she said. Those vaccines are given to her staff, local veterinarians and shelter workers.
To support Centre Wildlife Care’s mission or contribute to their new facility fund, visit their donation website at centrewildlifecare.org/donate.
