This year, wildlife rescues are busier than usual this spring, with what Sandy Donald calls “baby season” arriving early.
Donald, director of Ontario Wildlife Rescue, says it has been “like almost a friggin’ tidal wave.”
Centres are already receiving calls, initially about squirrels and raccoons, then about skunks, foxes, coyotes and possums.
“These animals are dependent on what the wildlife rescue centres do. If they don't look after them, the quicker the animals die,” he said.
Northern Ontario's newest wildlife centre, Thunderbird Wildlife Rescue, was badly needed, said Donald.
“People were just absolutely ecstatic. They almost act as if they won the frickin’ lottery,” he said.
Still, Northern Ontario has an underwhelming number of wildlife rehabilitators compared to the south.
Northern Ontario currently has only six wildlife rescue centres: Longlac, Nakina, Nipigon, Sault Ste. Marie, Val Caron in Sudbury and the newest one, Thunder Bay – while southern Ontario has around 40.
The site in Thunder Bay has the potential to be the largest in northern Ontario, said Ontario Wildlife Rescue director Sandy Donald, adding that it will make a huge difference in that part of the province.
He said not only it will serve the Thunder Bay and Lakehead areas but could also be the centre all the way up to Dryden or Kenora, where there isn’t one.
The distance between wildlife rescue centres in the north are a problem, he added.
Donald said other centres, even in Sudbury, have been receiving a number of calls from Kenora about deer, which he describes as “a hell of a distance.”
“If we get a call from Dryden or Kenora in regards to an injured orphan animal… Jesus, there's nothing to be done,” he said.
Most wildlife rescue centres in Ontario are entirely volunteer-run, only operating from donations they receive as a non-profit.
Those who run it have to have a certain amount of passion for it because these aren’t paid jobs or government-funded, said Donald.
“Nobody goes into the wildlife rescues field for fame or fortune. You go into it for the animals,” he explained, saying there’s “an awful lot” of work and very long hours involved.
Some centres even have volunteers taking on all the costs out of their pocket, while Ontario Wildlife Rescue tries to find food and medical supplies to provide them, he said.
While the provincial government licenses and regulates the wildlife rescue centres, they don’t actually operate or fund them.
Donald pointed to Ontario’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1997, which explicitly says, “A wildlife custodian is not entitled to any remuneration from the Minister (of Natural Resources).”
“Why it's there? I have no clue. But it's been there since (1997),” he said. “So by law, the provincial government is not allowed to basically help wildlife rescue centres.”
Several wildlife rescue centres across the province, especially in the north, have shut down due to lack of funding and revenue, including Wild At Heart, a popular wildlife rescue and animal refugee facility in Sudbury, which ceased operations in December 2019.
In spite of this, the process of becoming a wildlife rescue centre is a rather rigorous one and centres are heavily regulated.
To become what the province calls an “authorized wildlife custodian,” you have to write an exam and once licensed, have to keep logbooks, send in reports and have site inspections, among others.