The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which rescues sea creatures that are sick or in trouble along the Orange County coastline, is hoping to make a temporary field hospital using a portion of the Laguna Beach Dog Park a permanent facility.
The center has been leasing about 15,000 square feet of the dog park’s 2.64 acres for the last three years to house sea lions and seals while renovations are made to its main facility, the red barn just up Laguna Canyon Road that has been its home since the 1970s.
People play with their dogs at the Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) The Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Shaheed Alemim plays with Apollo, his 4-year-old Goldendoodle, at the Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Visitors play in the Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) People play with their dogs at the Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) People play with their dogs at the Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 6People play with their dogs at the Laguna Beach Dog Park in Laguna Beach, CA, on Monday, January 19, 2026. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center has been using a portion of the dog park for their temporary field hospital while they build a new facility. PMMC says they anticipate a greater need for extra space and has asked the city to let them keep the space permanently. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) ExpandWhile the work on the barn and surrounding structures is expected to be completed in April, center officials are asking city leaders to consider allowing the field hospital, which cost $1.5 million to build with pools and a filtration system, to remain in place, using about 12,000 square feet in the future.
That would return the dog park to more than 90% of its original size.
The proposal has drawn criticism from Friends of the Dog Park, as well as from the nearby Laguna Food Pantry.
Several representatives of the dog park argued during a recent City Council study session that they felt they were being “hoodwinked” by the marine mammal hospital, and several folks speaking for the pantry suggested the area would better serve the broader community if it were annexed by the pantry as demand for its services increases.
City Manager Dave Kiff suggested a compromise might be found, while keeping in mind that the land must remain open space due to $260,000 in state grant funding that helped with its purchase. Any buyout would require legal analysis, he said.
The City Council agreed to form an ad hoc committee with Mayor Mark Orgill and Councilmember Sue Kempf to work with PMMC to determine what’s realistic, while taking input from the other groups.
Orgill said Monday that the ad hoc committee — it’s expected to be made official at the council’s Jan. 27 meeting — will look at the whole area from PMMC’s red barn to the dog park. He said he didn’t think it is out of the question for PMMC to keep its field hospital at the park, but added “there may be more efficient ways of using the whole area.”
CEO Glenn Gray said PMMC isn’t going back on its word, but rather is making the ask because patient needs have changed significantly since the agreement was made in 2023. The center’s temporary permit expires in June.
Last year’s unexpected extended period of toxic algae blooms, which left hundreds of sea lions sick or dying along the Southern California coastline, had PMMC treating or responding to an all-time high of 500-plus patients.
“The summers have not been the same,” Gray said. “There used to be a seasonality that was somewhat predictable in terms of patient counts and patient issues. Typically, we’re dealing with pups that are dealing with malnutrition and dehydration.”
Now, he said, while pups remain a mainstay of rescue — several are already in house — the center for the past three years has been swamped with sea lions that have consumed the poisonous algae that contains a neurotoxin called domoic acid.
These blooms used to happen every once in a while, the center’s veterinarian Dr. Alissa Deming said, most often during a transition between an El Niño year and a La Niña climate pattern.
“That pattern has gone away,” Gray said, adding that the past four years have been straight toxic algae blooms. “Our patient count is higher, so we need more capacity.”
Ideally, Deming said, the field hospital would remain in place and serve as a “pop-up facility” open for two to three months to triage and treat sick animals when capacity is reached in the main hospital. The goal is to accommodate 200 animals in-house once the barn renovation is done, and have enough space for 200 more in the field hospital.
At its busiest last year, Deming said the center was rescuing seven to nine animals a day in addition to dolphins that were stranding on beaches. Two whales also washed up on local beaches, sickened by the toxin, a first in Southern California.
While volunteers representing Friends of the Laguna Beach Dog Park said they empathize with PMMC’s mission, they do not support a permanent facility.
Volunteer David Finch said the group supported PMMC’s use of the area “in good faith, with assurances of full restoration.” The group now “strongly opposes” any continued use of “the dog land” beyond the end of the temporary permit, he said.
Related links
50 years, 10,000 rescues make Laguna Beach’s marine mammal center ocean health experts A Laguna Beach harbor seal rescued at just hours old gets forever home in New York aquarium Marine mammal rescue breaks ground on $14 million expansion, water reclamation project Unusually early toxic algae bloom is sickening and killing sea lions in Southern California Recent whales washed up in Orange and Los Angeles counties show evidence of poisoning from toxic algae“Transfer of any part of our dog park would be a fundamental betrayal of the land’s public use,” he said. “The park was gifted to the community.”
Chris Quilter, a local resident and volunteer, and Anne Bellier, the executive director of the food pantry, both “strongly opposed” allowing PMMC the space permanently and instead advocated annexing a portion of the 15,000 square feet for the pantry’s use. The pantry is located next to the field hospital.
“Giving PMMC permanent use would limit the city in seeing how the property could be best used by the entire community,” Bellier said, adding that the pantry, which serves 300 families a day, is seeing an increasing demand for its services and is already hampered by traffic congestion and lack of parking.
“Especially concerning is that it would be used for a few months a year,” she said. “Once public parkland is lost, it’s never returned.”
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