This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A West Valley City wildlife rescuer is frantically seeking a new home for his collection of more than 500 snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators, coyotes, spiders and other animals.
Jim Dix, proprietor of Reptile Rescue Service, is one of the last of 45 people who need to vacate residences between 3500 South and 4500 South at about 5700 West to make way for the Mountain View Corridor highway project.
Dix and Utah Department of Transportation officials have negotiated for more than a year — with little success — to find a new location for his 13-year-old home-based animal sanctuary.
They are three months past a deadline for resettling the rescue operation, with its hundreds of aquariums, cages and animal pens crammed ceiling-high into Dix's 1,500-square-foot, three-floor rental property in West Valley City.
The search has taken on an element of desperation lately as the parties work to find and prepare a site by early fall, hoping to avoid exposing the sanctuary's exotic and temperature-sensitive species to a move in the winter cold.
Dix, who is among only a handful of experts in Utah licensed to handle and keep rattlesnakes, has turned to the public for help. In addition to seeking suggestions for possible sites, he said, "we need people who will donate services, construction materials, anything that will help."
"There is no shelter in the valley that can hold these snakes," the 52-year-old plumber and self-taught zookeeper said. "Without us, these animals would be destroyed."
The quandary is also drawing attention from area shelters, most of which focus their efforts on household pets and lack adequate facilities to house dangerous reptiles when they are abandoned or seized by law enforcement.
"We've worked with Jim for years and given him turtles, iguanas, snakes," said Gene Baierschmidt, executive director of the Murray-based Humane Society of Utah. "He provides an invaluable service to the animal community."
Meanwhile, the delay in relocating Reptile Rescue has stalled utility work in the transit corridor. Crews intend to move existing power lines and install new ones in advance of winter road construction.
Although that stretch of the Mountain View project remains unfunded, it eventually will be part of a larger highway, transit and trail corridor stretching along the west side of Salt Lake and Utah counties, according to UDOT.
The law requires state officials to help Dix find a suitable alternative to his current location. Several potential sites have been considered and ruled out, due to a variety of snags over municipal zoning, inadequate fixtures for the animals or reluctance by landlords.
"It's a very unique situation and has been very difficult,'' said Teri Newell, UDOT's Mountain View project director. "We would have liked to have him relocated sooner, but we're trying to work with him and be as accommodating as we can to his needs."