Wildlife Care Association (WCA) Needs Care Itself

I love this group. It takes care of so many important needs in this area. Let's donate and keep it going:

For eight years, the association has operated out of the golf-ball shaped structure at the former Air Force base, serving as the region’s only center licensed to accept wild animals and help them recover until they can be returned to the wild.

But by August, if the group’s worst fears come to pass, the structure may have to shut down and force the staff to turn the birds over to be euthanized.

“We’ve been hurting financially for a long time,” association President Theresa Bielawski said this week as she pondered how the group can stave off a closure that would, for the first time, imperil the animals they have spent years trying to save.

A combination of factors has hit the group: The years-long recession has cut into donations that are its lifeblood; the drought has increased the number of animals facing difficulty in the wild; and the group itself acknowledges it has not done a good job seeking grants, public funds or publicity.

...Nearly all of the 39-year-old group’s funding comes from donations or an annual fundraiser. In past years, the group has managed to just scrape by with a tiny paid staff and as many as 100 volunteers.

But the financial situation has become so serious the association says it may be forced to shut down in August rather than following its usual routine of going largely dormant in October, when there are few birds hatching or newborn mammals being brought in. Most of the mammals found by citizens – foxes, skunks, possums, squirrels and other creatures found injured or unable to care for themselves – are farmed out to volunteers who care for them at their homes.

But the bulk of the birds – robins, herons, mockingbirds and others – fill cages, laundry baskets and converted children’s playpens at the McClellan facility, where the air is filled with the smell of bird dung and the sounds of singing and chirping.

...So far this year, the number of birds at the facility has peaked at 1,500. It costs as much as $1,500 a month to purchase food for the birds, and the number being brought in has jumped from an average of five to 10 a day to 25 to 40 a day, largely because of the drought.

The drop-off in donations has hit hard.

“We just don’t have the funds to keep it operating,” Turner said, estimating that she works an average of 50 hours a week trying to manage the load. “I know that donations have been down for several years in a row, and I think that’s just impacting how things are going.”