Wildlife Rehabilitation and Care

Established over 25 years ago as an oil spill response team, Wildlife Rehab and Education (WR&E) is Houston’s only wildlife trauma and rehabilitation center that treats all injured, sick or orphaned native wildlife species. The mission of WR&E is to rescue, rehabilitate and release all injured, sick, oiled or orphaned native wildlife and to educate children, adults and companies on responsible environmental stewardship. WR&E promotes the preservation and respect of wildlife by offering emergency care and rehabilitation, oil spill response and community-wide environmental education. With the increasing damage and destruction done to the local environment, the need for wildlife assistance in the Greater Houston and Gulf Coast areas has been increasing since WR&E’s inception. Although we are a small nonprofit organization, our capacity and commitment to serve is great. Daily, our Wildlife Center receives injured, sick and orphaned native wild animals from Houston and the surrounding counties, and WR&E has never turned away a wild animal in need of care.

WR&E is one of the leading organizations in the Gulf Coast for oil spill response and education. We regularly conduct oiled wildlife response workshops for volunteers, state and federal agencies and corporations, allowing us to provide education on oil spills and effective responses that will maximize the chances of survival for affected wildlife. In 2010, we have trained over 600 volunteers in oil spill response. The Oiled Wildlife Response team has over 20 years of experience and is available to respond to emergencies along the entire Gulf Coast. WR&E’s Oiled Wildlife Response team has responded to over 60 oil spills since 1996, including four in 2010 alone.

We proudly operate a fully functioning Wildlife Center in Houston, where wildlife rehabilitation and education services are conducted. Daily, our Wildlife Center receives injured, sick, oiled and orphaned native wild animals from Houston and the surrounding counties. Within this center, we provide emergency veterinary care and rehabilitation to wildlife with the goal of releasing them back into the wild in a physical condition that optimizes survival. At the Wildlife Center, we operate a triage and surgery room, and we work with local veterinarians, as well as professors and students from the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine. The Wildlife Center also acts as a central facility for concerned citizens to deliver all injured, ill and orphaned native wildlife, providing an easy to access resource to aid animals in need. Serving thousands of animals each year, the WR&E Wildlife Center is the only one in the area that has the capacity to provide care to all native birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. This includes pelicans, hawks, owls, bobcats, raccoons, armadillos, moles, squirrels, snapping turtles and many more. There is no native animal too large, too wild or too peculiar to receive rehabilitation from WR&E.

WR&E is requesting a total of $5,000 to assist in the care of the animals at our Wildlife Center. At any time, we could have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of animals in our care. Because we provide rehabilitation and other services across a wide range of species, from birds and mammals to reptiles and amphibians, we must offer specialized food and care to each of our animal patients. Out of WR&E’s $332,000 budget, approximately $45,000 is allocated on animal food and medication alone. Funding from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation will help cover the costs of feeding and caring for the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that will enter our doors throughout the year. A grant of $5,000 will make a strong, positive impact on the lives of the orphaned, injured and ill animals in WR&E’s care. Due to the ever increasing need for wildlife rehabilitation services, we anticipate taking in approximately 8,000 animals in 2010, a nearly 15% increase over 2009. General funding will enable WR&E to keep its operations sustained throughout the year and ideally enable WR&E to increase its service capacity.