Wildlife Rehabilitation Center asks to help animals struggling in cold

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is taking in many animals as temperatures continue to drop.

Wildlife in the area is not used to these extremely low temperatures, so the center has been taking in many animals found frozen and struggling in the weather.

Wildlife in North, for instance is acclimated to these low temperature changes, but animals here are not used to this weather since they are used to the normal winter temperatures the Panhandle gets.

The biggest thing you can do right now to help the wildlife in your area is to provide a box with straw outside, so animals can have a place to be protected from the weather this week.

They do not recommend putting blankets or towels inside the box since the precipitation outside can freeze the blankets.

“If someone finds an animal in their yard that is struggling, if they can they can throw a blanket or a towel over it and just kind of go underneath it, scoop it up, place it in a box or carrier with soft bedding and bring it inside. And then go ahead and contact us and either bring it out to the Wildlife Center or if you’re not able to drive or concerned about being out on the roads, go ahead and call us or text us [(806)680-2483 (BITE)] and we will send somebody out to get it,” said said Stephanie Oravetz, owner and executive director at the Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

The center is not at capacity yet, but their intake room and bird room are completely full at this point.

They do have extra rooms and will make it work for the animals that come in.

“But I also have to give a shout out to our community because everyone has been great sending us questions, what they can do to help. They understand that these are wild animals, we don’t want them to get hurt, but at the same time sometimes they need a helping hand during something like this. This is not going to make them friendly after one time of helping them. So, what we’re seeing in our community is people going out and seeing something that’s stuck and frozen and helping it and then bringing it into the center,” said Oravetz.

Some animals the center is caring for right now is a female mallard that was stuck to the concrete and a barn owl that was found trying to get inside someone’s house by pushing on their glass door.

“A lot of this is just animals frozen. They’re just not prepared for this weather and once they kind of thaw out, they’re back to their feisty selves. And so, they don’t understand that we’re just trying to help them and we can’t wait to get them, back out come Friday,” said Oravetz.

If you know of any wildlife in your area, the center suggests providing a box with straw outside so animals can have a place to be protected from the weather this week.

“Our well is completely frozen; we have no running water whatsoever. So, everybody’s having to make trips to fill 5-gallon jugs at their house and bring them back up. But everybody’s been really great about that. We have a team member Cassie, she was fantastic. Her husband and his best friend came out they re-insulated the inside of the well house... And it’s still not defrosted yet but we’re praying that it will soon,” said Oravetz.

If you’d like to help the center, they would appreciate heated blanks, bird seed and monetary donations which can be made through their website here.

To keep up with the latest wildlife updates, check out their Facebook page.

Copyright 2021 KFDA. All rights reserved.