Raising and/or rehabilitating injured or orphaned wildlife costs a considerable amount of both effort and money. We understand that not everyone has the time or the facilities to give orphaned or injured Texas native wildlife the hands-on, specialized care they need. However, there are lots of ways to help.

 

Cash Donations

Caring for orphaned and injured wildlife is expensive. WR&E does not receive any federal, state or local government support. All of our operating funds come from concerned individuals and corporations.  Wildlife that comes into the center must be treated for the appropriate parasites, diseases and some require vaccination. Injuries and infections must be treated. Orphaned mammals and some birds require species specific formulas for six to twelve weeks. The raptors need frozen mice and rats; the fish eating water birds need frozen smelt and squid; the insectivore birds need frozen crickets and meal worms; the seed eating birds require species specific mixes; the squirrels need rodent block, fruit, nuts and vegetables and the omnivores such as the opossums and raccoons need dog and cat food, fruit, vegetables, boiled eggs, etc.  Click here for the Adopt a Wildlife Ambassador program as well as a mail in form and access to PayPal.

 

---

There are several "painless" ways to donate the funds necessary to help WR&E  to care for the thousands of animals that come to us for help.

 

Amazon - If you are going to shop at Amazon, come to our website first and click on the Amazon banner at the left. We are partnered with Amazon, so in exchange for bringing shoppers to their site, we get a small fraction of a percent "reward" for sales make through us. Going to Amazon through our site will not affect the prices you are quoted.

 

Make Wildlife Rehab & Education your Randall's Remarkable Card Good Neighbor charity of choice.   Just let Randall's, Tom Thumb, or Safeway know you would like to link your Randall's Remarkable/Reward Card to WR&E. Simply fill out an application available at the Courtesy Booth at any Randall's store. Wildlife Rehab & Education’s Randall's Remarkable account number is 2349.

 

Kroger Share Card

Just scan your WR&E Kroger Share Card at check out. If you need a Kroger Share Card mailed to you please email sharonschmalz@WRandE.org.

Kroger is planning of changing their program in a few months and will directly link us to the Kroger Plus Shopper's Card. We'll let you know when the change happens and what needs to be done to activate your card as a WR&E Share Card.

---

 

Volunteer at Wildlife Center - click here for more information

Volunteering at the Wildlife Center is a lot like being a grandparent, you get show up, spoil the grandkids and go home. Unlike individual permitted rehabilitators, there are no 10 p.m., 12 p.m. 2 a.m. or 4  a.m. feedings. The commitment isn't 24/7. 

 

---

 

Tell your veterinarian, family and friends about us

Help WR&E care for terribly underserved Texas native wildlife by telling first and foremost  your veterinarian; then your friends and family about us. Tell them about our website and how it is packed with helpful information. Tell them to call us before an intervention, especially if they are having a problem with wildlife.

 

Ask your veterinarian if they are interested in working with the Wildlife Center and/or our individual rehabilitators. See if they are willing to accept injured or orphaned wildlife and have someone at their office bring it to the Wildlife Center during lunch or the end of the day.

 

---

 

Volunteer to give educational talks

WR&E has three missions and like a stool, we can't fulfill our overall mission of caring for the needs of native Texas Wildlife without a balance of all three. The first is the most obvious - physically caring for injured and orphaned wildlife that is entrusted to our care and returning them to the wild in such a way and condition that survival is maximized. The second is public education. We need to get our message of peaceful co-existence; respect for ourselves, each other and our environment; responsible stewardship of our environment and wildlife ecosystems; how to tell if an animal requires intervention or should be left alone, how to reunite moms with their babies and how to deal with "nuisance" animals without resorting to live-trapping and relocation. Without education we have no hopes of stemming the tide of habitat destruction, escalation of conflicts between wildlife and people and the waves and waves of orphans that are found two to three days after mom has been trapped and relocated or the babies that are kidnapped by well meaning people who want to help but don't know how.

 

---

 

Volunteer your expertise

Web building and maintenance. Building and maintaining databases. Use of tags and key words to make it easier for people to find us. Using e-tools to keep in contact. Newsletter and website content. Data entry. Transcription of old articles into electronic format. Correspondence. Cultivating sponsors and donors of supplies. Picking up donated supplies, food and medicines. Grant writing, there are opportunities that we are missing. Successful grant writing requires talent, experience and time.  Construction contractor, plumber, electrician or carpentry. Organizers for fund raising events, etc.

 

---

 

Help drive to pickup or transfer wildlife

Not all wildlife can be cared for at the WR&E Wildlife Center and must be transferred to individual rehabbers or transferred from one rehabber to another. For example, we can intake and stabilize raccoons at the Wildlife Center. However, the facilities and physical requirements are so demanding that long term care and rehabilitation must occur at the home of a permitted rehabber.

 

---

 

Help drive to pickup supplies

Many of our food sources require that we physically go pick it up. Frozen mice and rats for the raptors often require a round trip of several hours, frozen fish is local as are several stores that donate torn bags of food or kitty litter.

 

---

 

Donate gas cards to defray the cost of all this driving

 

---

 

Locate release sites for wildlife on private property

We are always on the looking for suitable wildlife release sites. We utilize three methods of release. A "hard release" involves taking the animal to a suitable release site, releasing it and walking away. In our experience, healthy opossums are the only species that can be routinely hard released. The other extreme is a "soft release" which involves care and caging at the release site for days or weeks before release. Once released, back up food is provided until the animal is self-sufficient. Wildlife can be released at an earlier age with true soft release techniques. Most of our releases are "semi-hard" which doesn't require caging at the release site, but does require providing food on a daily basis until the animal has established food sources and honed hunting skills.

 

---

 

Help build on-site rehab cages or release cages

Birds, especially raptors must be contained in such a way that they can't damage their feathers. Proper caging is species specific, but for many birds it requires a sturdy framework to which 1 inch by 2 inch slats are attached. It is very labor and material intensive. There are currently only three rehabbers with the necessary credentials,  permits and the fifty to eighty foot flight cages necessary to rehabilitate the larger raptors.

 

---

 

Drive release cages from one site to another

We have several soft release cages that will fit on a twelve foot flat bed trailer. However,  WR&E must borrow a suitable trailer and not all rehabbers have vehicles suitable for towing. It can often be a two to  three hour drive to release sites.

 

---

 

Donate supplies

WR&E uses a huge quantities dog and cat food, kitty litter (non-clumping only), paper towels and cleaning supplies. For example, raccoons that are nearing release eat a pound of food a day. WR&E rehabilitated and released several hundred raccoons last year, all of which had to be cared for until they were five to six months old. Juveniles that weren't old enough for release in November have to be "wintered over" until spring.

 

We welcome "in kind" donations, but sometimes we have discount agreements with distributers and can buy more for your dollar than you can. A good example of this is the infant formulas. There is a constant need for dog/puppy food, cat/kitten food and non-clumping kitty litter, but our ability to store large amounts where it won't attract mice and rats is limited. Click here for our "wish list".

 

---

 

Donate newspapers

We welcome your donated newspapers. All aquariums, kennels and cages are lined with newspaper for sanitary purposes. Please store your newspapers FLAT, it is very hard to get a newspaper that has been rolled for any length of time to lay flat in the kennel. Folded in half and stored in a box or paper bag works great.  If possible, please sort out the shiny or slick pages because they don't absorb well and some inks can be harmful. This step will save our volunteers precious time.

 

---