In Metro Vancouver, when a bird flies into a window, or a cat catches a garter snake, or a tortoise gets run over by a car, chances are the injured wild animal ends up at the Wildlife Rescue Association in Burnaby.
The registered charity is the only facility in the region that takes any and all wildlife found in distress, and this year, it’s been especially busy, handling more than 2,000 different cases.
Since the association’s busiest month -- June -- is still to come, staff there are predicting they could end up treating more than 5,000 animals in 2015, more than they’ve ever handled before, and more than five times what their facility was built for.
“We have over 350 more animals than we did last year at this time, not including the 500 snakes that we got at the beginning of this year,” coordinator Janelle VanderBeek told CTV News.
Most of the cases the association handles are caused by animal-human interactions, VanderBeek said.
“It's something we are doing to these wild animals that they need the care for that we should be accountable for,” she said.
The organization receives no government funding, and it relies heavily on volunteers to do its work -- work that is, in a roundabout way, government-mandated.
People who encounter injured wildlife are prohibited from rehabilitating the animals themselves. Legally, individuals are required to take injured wild animals to a facility like the Wildlife Rescue Association as soon as they find them. The association has special permits to be able to keep the animals for more than 24 hours.The Burnaby non-profit is the only facility in the region that takes all kinds of wild animals.
Without such facilities, injured wildlife would simply not be rehabilitated, VanderBeek said.
“If we can't keep going there is no help for these animals,” she said. “A lot of people rely on us.”
For more information about the Wildlife Rescue Association, visit their website.
With Files from CTV Vancouver’s Penny Daflos
