The Chintimini Wildlife Center in Corvallis may be forced to limit its services due to a decrease in donations compared to past years.
Chintimini Wildlife Center is not a government agency and receives no funds from federal, state, county, or city agencies. Instead, it is supported by donations, merchandise sales, grants, special-event fundraisers, and business partnerships. https://chintiminiwildlife.org
“We are fully funded by donations and private funders, so what that looks like is we don’t have government assistance,” said executive director Catherine Mendez.
According to Mendez, the funding is crucial to keeping the center up and running at its current capacity. She said they serve about 2,000 animals every year.
After the closure of another wildlife rehabilitation center in Salem, Mendez said she expects the number of animals they serve to increase. The wildlife rehabilitation center is reportedly the only remaining, all-species center in the Willamette Valley between Salem and Eugene.
“All the rehabilitation, that’s all free care. That costs the public nothing,” Mendez said. “Without that necessary funding, as a nonprofit, we won’t be able to continue to serve the community in the same capacity.”
Wildlife Hospital Statistics
Each year sees a significant increase in the number of patient admissions to the wildlife hospital.
Cause Of Admissions
The vast majority of admissions are due to direct or indirect contact with humans. Very few of our admissions are due to natural causes such as viruses. Most cases involve trauma – collisions with human-made structures such as windows, fences and vehicles, injuries from domestic pets, etc. The category of “Other” includes a wide range of causes including electrocutions, poisonings, shooting, traps, and intentional abuse. In some cases the cause of an injury is unknown, however, they probably fit into these same categories. Most of the orphans that we see are because their parents succumbed to one of the previously mentioned causes.
Admission by Animal Type
Avian species make up the vast majority of wildlife patients we admit annually. Less than 30% of animal admissions are mammals, and very small percentage of patients are reptiles, such as Garter or Gopher snakes. Amphibian patients are quite rare. In 2019, we admitted approximately 150 different species of native wildlife to our hospital.
As demand grows and time passes, Mendez said there are capital improvements that need to be made. She said the hospital building has been around for about two decades. The building has undergone some wear and tear, and Mendez said the long-term plan is to get a new building.
“We’d eventually like to have a brand new hospital, something that we are able to expand,” Mendez said. “In the summer of 2021, we were filled to capacity, so we were completely limited on accepting.”
In the meantime, Mendez said they would need a new modular home to continue offering services while the new hospital was being built.
“With all this hard work and dedication our staff, interns, and volunteers put into each and every soul that enters our facility, we absolutely celebrate every single one of them that makes it to release. We try our best to return Oregon’s wildlife back to where it was meant to be – in the wild!“
Funding also would be used to expand the center’s educational programs. Currently, a wide variety of programming is offered. “We currently have correctional facility visits, assisted living home visits,” Mendez said. “We work with all the second-grade classrooms in all of Benton County.”
According to the center’s education curator, Bree Hinricher, these programs serve an important purpose. “Wildlife education is how we’re going to make sure that our Earth is there for future generations,” Hinricher said.
Additionally, Mendez said staff at Chintimini Wildlife Center are hoping to transform a section of their 9-acre plot of land into a nature center.
“We have so many ideas of making this eventually an open nature center with the community that can come on site, walk our nine acres of trail, have pollinator gardens here, and really have it be a retreat nature center,” Mendez said.
Your meaningful contribution will help continue to inspire learners of all ages and from all backgrounds, provide medical care and aid to wild animals in need, and offer guidance for wildlife-related circumstances through our wildlife hotline.
Checks can be made out to Chintimini Wildlife Center and mailed to: Chintimini Wildlife Center 311 NW Lewisburg Ave, Corvallis, OR 97330 —– Or you can make a gift in any amount directly online.
How to Support the Chintimini Wildlife Center: https://chintiminiwildlife.org/donate