Community Corner

Animal Sanctuary Gives Animals New Lease on Life

Development has had a big impact on wild animals, who are trapped, run over by cars and shot by poachers

If you drive out on Mecham Road, you’ll come to an orphanage of sorts, a eucalyptus-shaded sanctuary that has been nursing wary souls back to health for more than three decades.

There is the brother-sister pair of mountain lions, one of them missing a leg after being shot by poachers, the other with an injured tendon that makes walking difficult. There are wolves discovered in someone’s backyard, a red-tailed hawk with a broken wing and coyotes hit by cars. 

Doting on them all is Doris Duncan, the executive director of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, and a team of employees and volunteers who feed, clean and oversee the more than 100 animals at the sanctuary.

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“We’re not a zoo, but a wildlife rehabilitation center and have a moral obligation to help animals, even if they aren’t popular,” Duncan says.

The goal of Wildlife Rescue is to restore animals back to health and release them back into their natural habitat before they become tame. That’s why the animals are fed a diet of what they’d find in the wild—fruit, mice, worms—instead of cat and dog food, which is easier to procure.

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To keep track of all of their charges, the workers keep a large white board with notes on each animal’s dietary needs, such as ‘Too Fat!! On a diet.’ And ‘2 mice only. 1 piece of fruit.’

Proper food is only one aspect of the rehabilitation. The center is also building a raptor recovery center, where birds are “exercised” to make sure they can survive when they’re released. There's also a pool where otters found far from home can play as they are nursed back to health and eventually returned into the wild.

But some, like Kuma, one of the resident mountain lions, will never leave because their injuries are too severe for them to survive unassisted.

Watch a video of one of the mountain lions above

John Branscom, a retired carpenter, is one of more than 60 volunteers at Wildlife Rescue. Bransom built the wolf enclosure and works as a docent during the public tours held every Saturday.

“I think the place is wonderful because it’s a chance to see the animals up close and educates children about what animals have gone through because of humans,” he said. 

Wildlife Rescue of Sonoma County relies on donations and could always use more volunteers, especially those with construction skills. To donate or find out how to get involved, visit the organization’s website at scwildliferescue.org


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