Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society raising funds for new equipment

The Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre is a safe haven for its current patients: a porcupine, a turtle, goslings and ducklings.

The Summerland, B.C., society has been established since 2020 and collaborates with other wildlife rehabilitation centres to help injured, sick and displaced wildlife.

“We have quite a variety of animals here so some injured animals, an injured turtle, but also a porcupine that has a big injury at the tail so we are able to treat that and once it’s healed it will be released back into the wild,” said Jonathan Laumer, secretary and treasurer of the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society.

To care for the animals, human interaction is limited which is one of the main reasons the grounds are closed to the public.

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“About 90 per cent of the animals that come to wildlife rehabilitation are in a pickle because of human interaction in some way or another so usually that’s displacement,” said Eva Hartmann, founder and executive director of the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society.

“It could be because we have taken over their habitat, and sometimes they get injured — not necessarily intentionally, people don’t try to hurt animals but accidents happen.”

Hartmann says that she and her team are seeing an annual increase in the number of animals they help each year.

“Around 100 animals per year on average come through here and we are still fairly new. Right now that’s our current numbers but every year it’s more and more,” said Hartmann.

To pay for operating costs, the society relies on grants and donations from the public. So, the team is preparing for their largest fundraiser yet called the Wild About Spring Wildlife Film Festival and Auction.

“We are raising funds to get our own portable veterinarian x-ray machine so that we can do x-rays on site because currently we have to pay for them and we have to think about whether we can we afford an x-ray or not,” said board member and volunteer, Jill McMahon.

The Film Festival will take over Kelowna’s Rotary Centre for the Arts on Friday, May 17, and tickets are going fast. Tickets are available online at www.interiorwildlife.ca