Friends of Wildlife:
Every animal has a right to humane medical care. It is heart breaking when there are ”no more beds” in our hospital for wildlife in dire need.
There are millions of common wildlife injured or orphaned every year in Massachusetts. The Center can treat approximately 2,000 patients a year. This is a drop in the bucket! We do not have the funding for staff to treat more.
There is no government funding or publicly funded entity to care for suffering wildlife. Less than 1% of the Center’s resources come from folks that bring us wild patients. By law, we cannot charge anyone, including municipalities, state agencies, and organizations that bring us ailing wildlife.
By law, the Center must provide the same level of care to a wild animal as a veterinary practice provides to a dog or cat. Sounds good, but our patients can’t pay, and their needs are different from dogs and cats. All operating funds and funds to build our facility were raised by begging people just like you for money. New England Wildlife Center is a community organization – founded by your neighbors and run by your neighbors.
When you help wildlife, you are a hero. When you take the time to bring an injured bunny to the Center, you definitely won’t want to hear that we can’t help. But, please, understand that we don’t want to tell you that we can’t help, especially because we wish we could. When we are full, we are unable to take in wildlife, until “beds” free up. If our veterinary staff and volunteers cannot safely care for more animals AND meet state laws and regulations, our only options are to recommend that wildlife be brought to other rehabilitators (who may or may not have openings), or to provide humane euthanasia. Before you come, please call 781 682 4878 and ask to be connected to our wildlife hospital to see if we are able to accept wildlife patients, also called “on intake”. We are here for wildlife and here for you to the best of our ability. Thank you for your patience and understanding restrictions out of our control.
In Marlborough MA there is an injured deer with the lower 1/3 of its leg missing. He can still get around by hopping and is eating. I was wondering if you knew of someone that could try and capture him? He’s located where I work and I believe they have called animal control but they haven’t been able to catch him yet. He’s been hanging around for about a month. I doubt he will survive the winter. Also, with this kind of injury, is there anything that could be done for him or someplace for him to safely live out his life?
Thank you,
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for your concern for this injured animal. Unfortunately, you are right that this animal will likely not survive the winter. A three-legged deer will have trouble covering enough ground to find suitable forage during the colder months, and injured and young deer are occasionally preyed on by coyotes. With an injury of this severity there is little that can be done medically or surgically. An adult deer will also not adapt to captivity well, as they are incredibly fearful of humans and human-produced sounds, smells, etc. As a prey species they are always on high alert and often injure themselves in captivity when trying to escape from perceived threats. For this animal to live a stress-free and humane life in captivity, it would require a very large fenced enclosure and I do not know of any such facilities in our area. I can put a call in to the state deer biologist to get their take on the matter, but I suspect they will feel the same way. Without a suitable captive home for this animal, humane euthanasia would be the next best option. I know its not a pleasant resolution, but in the end its better for the animal than dying of starvation in the coming months. Again, not a pleasant thought, but euthanasia by gunshot is very fast and often the most humane way to euthanize a deer. The stress associated with capturing the animal alive and transporting it to a veterinarian for euthanasia is immense far less humane for the animal. A State Police Officer should be able to come out if the animal is nearby. I understand this information is less than desirable, but its the reality of wild deer management and I hope it helps. I will be in touch if I get any more information from the state.
this is an unpleasant dilemma indeed, but euthanasia by gunshot even though fast and more humane, brakes the circle of life and is a waste of deer’s life in a way. just think how many animals and birds could prey on the injured deer and it would help them survive the winter.
You-Min,
You raise an interesting point. Taking animals out of the ecosystem would certainly waste resources for other animals. But after euthanasia by gunshot the carcass could be left in the wild for other animals to scavenge. And it would arguably be better the better option for scavenging animals as well as the deer would have much more “meat” to offer to other animals than if we let it starve to death. But also remember that there are many other factors in play in a situation like this. Such as minimizing the deer’s suffering, preventing disease transmission if a carcass is scavenged by domestic animals, and the unpleasant nature of leaving a carcass in close proximity to humans. We have to balance all of these things when making a decision.
-NEWC Staff
We have an orphaned cotton tail rabbit that is less than 3 weeks old named Simon that is extremely dehydrated due to diarrhea, with worms and does not look well at all. He was taking formula and recently started to deny it. He is extremely weak and needs medical attention as soon as possible. Along with Simon, comes his family, Brutus, Joan and Marley. They are in good condition and hopping around happily. Joan however does have worms and would need medecine to cure them. Please contact me as soon as possible. If you could do anything at all that would be greatly appreciated. At least help out Simon, he needs your help and is awaiting your love.
Thank you and I will await your response in kind,
Josue
Hi Josue,
You are welcome to bring any sick animals to us for treatment. Unfortunately, we can only accept animals when our wildlife vet is present, Tuesday through Friday 10AM to 2PM. If you do bring them to us, we will require that you relinquish the animals to us, as it is illegal to rehabilitate wildlife without state permits. I should also tell you that it is extremely difficult to raise wild cottontails in captivity. Even trained professionals have a very, very low success rate. For this reason we typically recommend that cottontails be left in the wild, where we hope their chance of survival is greater. Here is a good link explaining some of the biology of these animals and why its so difficult to care for them.
http://rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html
Thanks for that link on bunnies. It is very informative. My husband is on his way to you guys now (we called first) with a teenie bunny that’s hind legs are injured. It pulls itself along on the front ones. Its about the size of my palm. We searched EVERYWHERE looking for the nest, and we live on a busy street. We think the mom was killed yesterday by some wild cats that frequent our yard so even if we did find the nest… It’s sad definitely. I feel so bad for it. Im sure at this point its probably too late no matter what and with such a low survival rate even by professionals… I’ll just have to tell my daughter who found it with me, that he’s at the animal hospital and they’ll set him free when his leg is better.
Hi Heather,
Thanks for taking time to care for this bunny and bring him in. Unfortunately, his injuries were beyond the point of repair, however, I cannot stress enough how much you helped him out. Even though some animal cannot be saved, minimizing their pain and suffering is HUGE. Thanks again for caring about local wildlife.
–Dr. C