FILE PHOTO.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK / Peter Sulzle
November 25, 2020 - 1:22 PM
A Kelowna woman is looking to start a non-profit wildlife rehabilitation centre in the Okanagan.
Eva Hartmann is the founder of the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, and all she needs is a suitable property to open a licensed facility.
The rehabilitation society hopes to provide medical care for sick, injured and orphaned wild animals with the goal of releasing healthy animals back into their natural habitats, according to a media release.
Currently there is no such centre in the southern Interior and with restrictions on wildlife transport to other areas of the province, often euthanasia is the only option for injured or orphaned wildlife.
“With its fast-growing population, the Okanagan is seeing a significant increase in wildlife injuries and displacement," Hartman, a registered veterinary technician, said in the release.
"For the past 40 years, Canada’s wildlife rehabilitation centres have shown similar statistics, more than 90 per cent of their wild patients are admitted as a direct result of human activities: hit-by-car, window collisions, power line burns, attacks from domestic pets and toxins."
The centre will also provide education and advocate for a peaceful co-existence of local communities and native wildlife.
For the planned rehabilitation facility, the society is considering several options, from the purchase of land to establishing a partnership with a private donor or local land trust, to leasing land that would fully or partially donate a suitable parcel.
For more information about the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, or to forward land donations or proposals to the society, contact Eva Hartmann by email here.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Brie Welton or call (250) 819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2020