North Texas nonprofit open year-round rehabilitates wild animals
PLANO – If you come across an abandoned baby bird or find an injured squirrel, there's a nonprofit in North Texas that can help you figure out the appropriate next steps.
When CBS News Texas visited North Texas Wildlife Center, a baby opossum that had been attacked by a dog was brought in by a local family.
Rebecca Hamlin, president of the North Texas Wildlife Center, gave the baby opossum its initial evaluation.
"It has a little injury to his face, but it doesn't look too severe," Hamlin said. "We'll get him on some antibiotics and pain meds and give him a nice place to grow up big and strong and then we'll get him back into the wild."
Each day, Hamlin and more than 100 volunteers at the center help animals of all shapes and sizes.
"Most of our animals that come to us are orphans," Hamlin said. "Then we have animals who have been hit by cars, attacked by dogs, abused by people, most often actually by kids, displaced animals from emergencies, natural disasters, stuff like that."
This year they have treated 2,025 animals, representing 93 different species.
"Opossums are one of our most common animals," Hamlin said. "Raccoons, squirrels, skunks, yellow-crowned night herons, green herons, owls, egrets, cranes, doves, anything you would see outside is what we'll get."
The wildlife center is open 365 days a year to help not only animals in need but to be a resource for the people who find the animals.
"They want to help this animal, but they may not have the tools, experience or the permit required to do it," Hamlin said. "And that's where we step in and we can take over. They've done their job. They did a great thing. They brought the animal to us into the right hands."
North Texas Wildlife Center founder, Mela Singleton, said there are skeptics about the work they do.
"Often people will say, why would you save a baby skunk? That's stupid," Singleton said. "And then they find a baby skunk, and their entire perspective on how that should work changes."
The animals growing, healing and being released back into the wild, the proof the wildlife center is making a difference.
"In the front of my home is a sign from the Carpenter song that says, 'Bless the beasts and the children for in this world they have no voice,''' Singleton said. "I think that's important because we think of things as how it relates to us in our world, but we fail to see that they have their own world and their own needs and that they have value."
The North Texas Wildlife Center is fundraising for a bigger facility as their current facility in Plano is at capacity. Donations are being accepted on the center's website.