I worked our open house this weekend, and it sounded like it may have been our busiest weekend ever, with over 2000 guests getting to see our facilities and the work we do. Between tickets, raffles, shirt and toy sales, and general donations, we raised a nice amount to help fund our work. As far as I know, all rescues around the world are funded purely by donations like these.
It was great seeing so many people from all the other shifts. We had to do a good chunk of the day's work in the 2 hours before the event started. I fed the meat eaters (opossums, raptors) and cleaned the outdoor pens. We did get a new Screech Owl, but it was very shy and wouldn't come out of its cardboard box, so we just stuck meat bits into the hole of the box until it took them. I'm sure I'll see it eventually.
I didn't want to deal with the parents/kids, so I took driveway duty. The driveway is just one lane, and with shuttles, people wandering, and people dropping off animals, it was too hectic, so this year we had just about everyone park down the road in the church parking lot and that the shuttles. Basically, I watched for cars stopping, kept them away from the driveway, sent most of them down the road, or sent them to different parking areas if they were bringing things in.
Special note: If you find an animal and intend to help it, you probably want to call your rescue first!
We had a guy try to bring us a deer. The state does not allow us to take deer, and this deer should not have been moved to begin with. This, naturally, all made him unhappy. I did see a game commission truck later so I didn't know if they had a table there or if they picked up the deer.
I heard yesterday people brought in ducks. Our website is plastered with very intrusive popups saying do not bring in any waterfowl due to bird flu. The state wants to handle that on their own at this time and we can't accept them and I think we can get in serious trouble if we're caught with them there.
People wanted to bring in raccoons, but we're at max capacity with them and couldn't accept them.
We do a lot, but we're not allowed to accept every species, and we only have facilities for so many. If you call, we can either tell you to not move the animal to begin with, if you should bring it in, how not to kill it bringing it in, or we can put you in touch with people that may be able to accept it or transport it if you can't. We provide a lot of services, but we can't do it all, but we'll help the best we can.
I got to visit a few animals on my breaks, and I'll share some animal reports in the comments. I don't always get to see them or see them so close during my work.
