Nolin River Wildlife Director Mary Key says spring is one of the most critical times at the wildlife rehab as that’s when baby animals tend to arrive in abundance.
“A baby animal comes to us after it’s either been injured or orphaned, most likely orphaned, and you know, it’s really usually people-related,” Key said. “It’s somebody trapped and relocated mom, or shot mom, or run over mom, so I think it’s really important that we work as a community to help out these guys.”
A surprise quick start to baby season means the refuge needs assistance keeping up its supplies.
“Usually we start late March, early April, but we’ve already had two litters come in in February, which is unheard of, so we were slow to ask for donations this year because we weren’t expecting things to happen so quickly, but we use so much Esbilac puppy formula, and goat formula for the deer, and it’s our biggest expense and the thing that we end up using a lot of our money donations for,” Key said.
Everything donated to the refuge goes directly towards the refuge’s mission of rehabbing and returning animals to their natural habitats.
“Every bit of the donation and everything they contribute goes directly to the animals,” Key said. “We don’t have any paid employees. It all goes directly to taking care of the animals.”
To learn more about how to donate, or to contact the refuge to learn about how you can support efforts to collect milk for the animals, find Nolin River Wildlife on Facebook.