Written by Delaney Holman

From a sleepy neighborhood street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Opie Acres appears as an 800-square-foot home with a small shed jutting out of the woods. However, behind the privacy fences and the flourishing green backyards, a bustling rehabilitation farm filled with raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and even skunks can be found. 

Opie Acres, a nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation farm, is bursting at the seams with more animals than a team of two full-time caretakers and volunteers can handle. The farm provides life-saving medical care to ill, injured, and orphaned Virginia Opossums and other wildlife. Even providing a sanctuary home for animals who can no longer live on their own to spend their last days in the peace and caring arms of Opie Acres. 

Jerry Harvey, the President and Chief Rehabilitator at Opie Acres, has woven together careers as a veterinary technician, paramedic, comedian, and hairdresser throughout his life, yet the one through line has been his love for animal rehabilitation. “Dealing with people and dealing with different situations of all kinds made a really great wildlife rehabilitator, in my opinion,” said Harvey.

Harvey ultimately left his lucrative comedy career to slowly build what has become Opie Acres. 

The sanctuary and rehabilitation farm was born out of the small house on this property that is now affectionately known as the caretaker house, home to Harvey and Christina Young, a Wildlife Rehabilitator and educator, and their two dogs. 

The grounds and house are rented by the two, who began working with the landlord to rehab fewer than five animals in the garage in 2016, and is now a large enough operation to rehab 800 a year.  

“It’s grown every year, making us have to add buildings, concrete foundations, build enclosures, and add more sections down in the woods. This place goes way deeper than you think it is,” said Harvey.

From a handful of animals in a garage, the operation grew into Opie Acres in 2017 and became a full nonprofit the following year. Today, anyone from McKamey Animal Hospital to regular everyday citizens can be heard calling Jerry about animal emergencies or showing up at the property with animals in need of care. 

“We get a lot of calls where people find these possums, and they think that they’re sick or injured, and basically, what has happened is they’re old, they’re full of parasites. They can’t forage for themselves anymore,” said Harvey. “They’re weak and tired and hungry. And so we bring them in, and get rid of their parasites, get their bellies full twice a day, give them a soft bed, and they may live another two to three months. Sometimes they’ve lived up to another year.”

Opossums live short lives, with an expected lifespan of up to four years. Mating season spans between January and February, and the hands at Opie Acres begin to fill with babies from February through June. 

Currently, the farm is nursing 73 baby possums, tenderly referred to as “joeys.” A skunk, 40 raccoons, some soon to be released, and 30 adult possums in the long-term care, possum nursing home. 

“We’re already having to turn some (babies) away this year because we’re so short-staffed,” said Harvey.

Harvey and Young, along with a team of specifically trained volunteers and support from external veterinary rehabilitators, provide around-the-clock medical care to all of the animals at the farm. However, with a growing number of animals and a small volunteer group, resources and hands are stretched thin this season.  

“It is almost impossible to keep volunteers. We have had hundreds of volunteers come through this place, and they get very frustrated when they find out that they’re not going to be just cuddling animals, that it is actually hard work,” said Harvey. 

Caring for 800 animals a year does not come without blood, gore, and insurmountable levels of feces. 

“It makes it worth it to me because I know that they have a chance to live, and they would not have that chance without us,” said Harvey. “Before we were here, there were only a couple of rehabbers in town, and they didn’t take a lot of animals. So it makes me wonder what happened to all those animals before us.” 

The small team at Opie Acres provides round-the-clock care for the forgotten and misunderstood critters in an unsuspecting neighborhood. The team needs more hands on deck, but persists out of love and concern for the health and safety of Chattanooga’s wild animals.

“There’s times where you want to cry or scream or whatever, but when it really comes down to it, it doesn’t matter how you’re feeling. (…) What matters is these animals get fed, and they get the care that they deserve and that they need,” said Harvey

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Wild Again

Written by Cooper Thompson

Tucked away in the rolling greenery of Chattanooga, Tennessee, bushy tails and playful paws are flooding back into their natural habitats. Opie Acres is more than just a wildlife rehabilitation center; it’s a lifeline for different animals and the people who care for them. Animal release is the ultimate goal at Opie Acres.

Christina Young, one of the two Chief Wildlife Rehabilitators, explained that each species has unique requirements for release. Skunks, such as one named Titus, must be able to hunt mice and other prey. 

“We want to make sure Titus has the right demeanor and all the skills to feed themselves, get away from predators, and make housing,” said Young.

Opie Acres releases about 85% of the animals they take in, with opossums being the most frequent guests, up to 400 a year. In 2025, they cared for nearly 700 animals across multiple species.

 “As we take them in, we’re sending them out,” Young noted. “It’s just a continuous process.” 

Titus the skunk arrived as a tiny, sickly baby. After months of care, he is finally ready for release in a carefully chosen woodland enclosure. “He’s eating his mice and all the gross things he’s supposed to be eating,” said Young. 

Opie Acres is run by two state-permitted rehabilitators, Young and Jerry Harvey, both of whom live in the caretaker’s house on the property. “Just the two of us could never do this job,” said Young. 

Volunteers, some coming as often as three or four days a week, handle everything from feeding animals to cleaning enclosures and chopping vegetables.

For Young, letting animals go is bittersweet. “I cry on every single one,” she admitted. 

The joy of seeing a once-injured animal thrive in the wild is mixed with anxiety about their future. “If they pass away that night, I hope it was the best night of their life,” said Young. 

Young is grateful for the animal-loving spirit of Chattanooga and the residents who go above and beyond to rescue and deliver wildlife in need.

Despite the challenges and heartbreaks, Opie Acres continues to rehabilitate and release as many animals as possible. Young and the Opie Acres team remain devoted to their mission. 

“Our success stories far outweigh the ones we aren’t able to save,” she said. “I can’t imagine doing anything different.” 

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