Fur-Ever Wild Rehabilitation

05/14/2026

Feeding wildlife puts animals and people at risk. 🦝 🦆🐿️

When wildlife gain access to human food sources, whether through intentional feeding, unsecured garbage, or pet food left outside, animals are drawn into residential areas and can become dependent on people.

This can lead to:
- Increased disease in wildlife populations
- Faster spread of illness among animals
- More aggressive and unpredictable wildlife behaviour
- Increased human-wildlife conflicts
- Property damage and safety concerns in residential areas
- Higher demand for wildlife control services, increasing costs for taxpayer

Wildlife in Central Elgin are well adapted to finding their own natural food sources. Human food lacks the nutrition they need and can cause serious health issues.

You can help:
✔️ Do not feed wildlife
✔️ Secure garbage and recycling bins
✔️ Bring pet food indoors
✔️ Remove food attractants from your property

Residents are encouraged to learn more about local wildlife so we can safely and respectfully share our environment: https://www.centralelgin.org/en/living-in-central-elgin/wildlife-in-central-elgin.aspx

05/13/2026

Fawns have started to be born. This girl, only 2 days old found herself in a precarious situation unable to get up on the slippery deck. We were able to get her reunited with her mother.
We ask, with so many newborn wildlife all around us, that you reconsider and hold off on your fireworks until Canada Day.

05/13/2026

Planning to celebrate the long weekend with fireworks? The Municipality of Central Elgin is reminding residents to follow the Noise By-Law and Fireworks By-law and all required safety measures this Victoria Day to help ensure celebrations remain safe, respectful, and enjoyable for everyone.

Fireworks are only permitted on private property on Victoria Day, Monday, May 18 and only from dusk until midnight.

Find the Fireworks By-Law and safety tips on our website: https://www.centralelgin.org/en/living-in-central-elgin/fireworks.aspx

05/05/2026

UPDATE Our owlet is in the middle with 2 other orphans. Doing well.

What a flutter of activity we had over the weekend when we received a call about a Great horned owlet who was found on the ground. We are thankful to the family who found him. What was remarkable is this 1 month old baby had no injuries after falling approximately 80 ft! Over the next 24 hours consulting with experts, unfortunately re-nesting wasn't an option, so this adorable owlet will be raised by a surrogate mom at the amazing Owl Foundation in Vineland Station.

05/05/2026

**IMPORTANT** Please report all potentially poisoned wildlife.

Canadian law recognizes the precautionary principle, which supports regulatory action where scientific certainty is incomplete. Reporting suspected poisonings ensures that harm is documented, give regulators the evidence they need to act, and strengthens the case for stronger protections.

Please share widely this widely.

Protect wildlife, companion animals, human health and the environment from rodenticides by NOT using any rodenticides and asking your friends, family, neighbours and, co-workers to do the same.

04/30/2026

Wildlife babies are everywhere! Baby raccoons, squirrels and Cottontail bunny calls are coming in every day.

But in 2 weeks fawns will start to be born. Of all our wildlife, these babies are the most vulnerable. For their safety Mom leaves them hidden, only returning every 8-10 hours to nurse. With the fireworks on Victoria Day, Sunday May 24th we hope that people will be mindful. The Mothers, like their fawns are terrified of the explosions and some mothers will not jepordize their own safety to come out to feed their babies. I hope this year I don't receive a call for a dying fawn.

So again this year we are promoting our campaign, asking for no fireworks for the month of May. We encourage those who already have signs to put them on their lawns.

We also have more signs to sell. $10 each, available to purchase at Inn on the Harbour in Pt Stanley. Or text or call me at 519-777-6440 and we will be happy to deliver them.

This spring, lets be the first community thats shows we care, by allowing our wildlife to have some peace and quiet while they raise their little ones.

04/30/2026

Amazing!!!

She Waited 14 Years to Bloom… and One Hand Can End It in Seconds

She stands motionless on the forest floor, unable to flee deer, drought… or human hands.

The Pink Lady’s Slipper is often mistaken for just another woodland flower. But what looks delicate is actually the result of astonishing survival.

Right now in eastern North American forests, these orchids are emerging during spring under canopies just beginning to leaf out. But each bloom may represent 10 to 14 years of hidden life underground.

Its seeds are almost dust — too small to survive alone. They can only germinate with the help of specific underground fungi, forming a lifelong partnership. Without that invisible ally, no orchid.

And if someone picks the flower?

The plant may lose the energy it spent years storing. In some places, colonies have vanished this way.

What most people call “just a flower” is part of a living forest network — fungi, soil, pollinators, trees, moisture, all linked.

Right now queen bumble bees are visiting these spring blooms while woodland ecosystems awaken. This is not decoration.

It is slow survival.

Some plants fight with thorns.

This one survives by asking us for mercy.

Sometimes conservation begins with simply leaving beauty where it is.

04/26/2026

A huge thank you to Kodi Becker for organizing this fundraiser 🥰

04/22/2026

This is what we have been trying to get people to understand. They don't need our help. Our help can harm. Please, Keep Wildlife Wild. Let Nature Provide.

The Fawn You Fed Apples Last Summer Is Dead. The Apples Killed It. Not Immediately
You tossed apples over the fence all summer, watching the spotted fawn crunch them happily. It felt like a deep, nurturing connection.

We often think offering wildlife sweet treats is a harmless act of compassion.

But a White-tailed deer (a Least Concern species ranging across North American forests and edge habitats) relies on a delicate rumen. Their gut bacteria are strictly calibrated for seasonal roughage. High-sugar foods trigger a severe pH crash, wiping out essential microbes and causing enterotoxemia—a fatal toxic shock.

Right now in March, as late-winter snow melts, well-meaning people dump corn and apples to "help" weakened yearlings. Instead, they deliver a delayed, lethal blow to a digestive system still adapted solely to woody winter twigs.

This practice disrupts the broader ecosystem. Artificial feeding congregates herds, accelerating chronic disease transmission and causing localized over-browsing that degrades the forest understory, ultimately starving native pollinators and nesting birds.

To truly help wildlife, stop all supplemental feeding. Plant native shrubs like dogwood or serviceberry to provide safe, natural forage.

Your apples didn’t save that fawn. They just set a quiet, deadly clock that finally ran out in the cold.

04/18/2026

Please don't use rodenticides.

The Fox That Doesn't Run Away
You step onto your cold patio in the pale March morning, and a Red Fox is curled quietly on the concrete. He watches you, completely motionless, looking almost tame.

We often experience a magical "Disney" moment, assuming the wild animal senses our kindness or is seeking a friendly interaction.

In reality, a native Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes, Status: Secure) that allows a human to approach is in critical, life-threatening distress. Right now in March, adult foxes are hunting relentlessly to provide for their newly born pups hidden in earthen dens. To meet this massive energetic demand, they consume dozens of sluggish rodents. If those rodents have ingested anticoagulant rodenticides, the fox suffers lethal secondary poisoning. This unnatural, supernatural calmness is not trust; it is the symptom of profound neurological collapse and internal bleeding.

As vital meso-predators, foxes are an interconnected ecological shield, naturally controlling disease-carrying rodent populations across suburban edges and woodlands. When we poison the base of the food web, the entire system bleeds out.

You must act quickly. Do not offer food, which worsens the agonizing decline. Ban chemical rodenticides in favor of mechanical traps, and immediately call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

He is not your woodland friend. He is the dying mirror of a toxic yard.

04/15/2026

A 2025 study reveals that many normally nocturnal and crepuscular furbearing animals are adjusting their habits to daytime due to resources, competition and us.

Many fur-bearers aren’t exclusively awake at night – despite common perceptions.