WATCH ABOVE: Procyon Wildlife, located in Beeton, Ont., is dedicated to protecting animals that are in need of care. Procyon is volunteer-run and accepts all species of Ontario mammals with the goal of rescuing, rehabilitating, and safely releasing these animals in their natural habitat. Susan Hay reports.
Volunteers from Procyon Wildlife have a passion for helping sick and injured wildlife.
Their day starts at five o’clock in the morning as they divide up into different nurseries to care for the baby animals.
“We take in small mammals that have been injured, hit by cars, or attacked by domestic animals like cats and dogs,” said Debra Spilar, Director of Procyon Wildlife.
“So there’s raccoons, skunks, a possum, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, fox, coyotes. You name it, we’ve got it!”
The goal of the centre is not only to rescue and rehabilitate, but to safely release the animals back into the wild. The centre currently has over 112 baby animals and are one of the few that will care for babies whose eyes are still closed.
Each week Dr. Tashfen Abbasi takes time away from his nearby practice to provide medical and surgical care to animals in need at Procyon Wildlife.
“This guy was rescued and it’s a five week old male and it was infested with ticks which were removed,” Abbasi said while examining a five-week-old raccoon.
The clinic is a non-profit organization run primarily by volunteers.
“The amount of calls that we get on a daily basis is insane,” said Aaron Quattrochiocchi, a volunteer at Procyon Wildlife.
“There’s so much wildlife that gets found that are injured or orphaned every day and people have no idea what to do.”
“The more we educate people, the more they now that we can make a difference to the wildlife,” said Spilar.
“Somebody has to help them. We are here.”
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