5931 Cotton Hill Road ~ Roanoke, VA 24018-5268
540.989.3798
Dear Wildlife Supporter,
Allow us the opportunity to thank you for your past support of Roanoke Wildlife Rescue. As you are aware, we are a community supported non-profit organization serving the greater Roanoke area since 1988.
Let me state that the purpose of this letter is to get your financial support to allow us to strengthen our position as a rehabilitation center in the Roanoke Valley and southwestern Virginia.
We currently operate as a volunteer organization with no paid staff
members. As you will see in the information that follows, we have made some great strides
in our wildlife program here while suffering some set-backs in other areas of our
rehabilitation processes. Please carefully review the information in this letter and
consider supporting our on-going programs. We plan to become a permanent agency in
the valley
offering free rehabilitation services to everyone who needs help with wildlife. You can
help us make this happen!
Roanoke Wildlife Rescue serves the community by providing foster care and/or qualified medical treatment for orphaned and injured wildlife until these wild animals can be released back into their natural environment. Most of these animals would die or be killed without an organization dedicated to their welfare.
In addition, Roanoke Wildlife Rescue encourages an understanding of wildlife through outreach programs, i.e. educational programs for schools, civic organizations, scout troops, etc., in many surrounding localities.
Progress Requires the Ability to Change
Government requirements for the rehabilitation and exhibition of wildlife have become more rigid and Roanoke Wildlife Rescue is working to meet the new requirements. Some of the improvements listed on the following page were required to meet state and federal guidelines while others were to improve the overall quality of our facility, the quality of care for the animals and our ability to serve the community.
Since the Fall of 1999, the following improvements and additions to our program have been accomplished:
• We have obtained our license to be a fully operational veterinary facility restricted to wildlife only. This allows us to provide medical treatment (including involved surgical procedures) for injured wildlife. This project reflects outstanding expenses: A) relating to the facility up-grade to meet the standards of the Va. Board of Veterinary Medicine, and; B) relating to the insurance premium required for this type of business.
• We have constructed a new large habitat for the rehabilitation of foxes through fund raising efforts by the Roanoke Natural Foods Coop.
• A new raccoon habitat complete with trees and small ponds has been built to provide the baby raccoons an environment to develop the skills necessary to survive in the wild and a more natural environment for adult raccoons to recover from injury or illness. This habitat contains three separate pens attached to a large exercise area.
• A deer pen expansion has been completed to provide additional space for the fawns. Our fawn holding area measures 50' x 70' complete with a small barn, trees and feeding racks.
• Numerous cages have been built to provide temporary housing for rehabilitating wildlife. These structures have been provided through the efforts of various scout troops. And some of our existing outside caging has been re-designed to accommodate more of the "mammal" population. (Outstanding Expense)
• A fresh coat of paint has been applied inside and out to enhance our overall appearance. (Outstanding Expense)
The majority of these up-grades are paid for. We do have an outstanding liability of $3,8OO for 3 of the projects listed above.
We are pleased with the improvements we have made with our facility and our habitats. There are still many improvements yet to be made.
And we have more news!
Roanoke Wildlife Rescue now has a web site available to provide information about our organization. We developed this tool to provide honest answers to concerns posed by the community at large. The web site became active in late spring and we have received e-mail inquiries concerning wildlife issues from as far away as Oklahoma! You can visit us at:
www.roanokewildlife.org
And please send us your e-mail address so that we can send you newsletters and other information as it relates to your wildlife.
So that's what we have done in the last fourteen months Now here are some of our immediate needs that must be addressed:
The USDA [United States Dept. of Agriculture] requires that we install perimeter fencing around our outdoor habitats. This is to provide protection for the animals in our care as well as prevent animals such as cats and dogs from having access to our animal areas. They specified 6' chain link fence with locking gates; this is an expense of $9,600 that must be met by May, 2001.
Urban development is closing in on our wildlife facility with a large sub-division across the road from us and another one planned to begin construction within the next few months on the land adjoining ours. The sooner we can address this issue, the sooner we will be in total compliance of USDA standards and have the necessary safety net to protect our Center and the animals in our care.
Additionally, we would like to expand our educational programs. Children love the opportunity to see live animals [non-releasable]. The educational programs allow us the opportunity to educate children about our native wildlife. We must constantly stimulate an awareness of how all things in nature must be interactive to keep our eco-system in balance.
We are transferring our method of animal intake and tracking onto computer. Through our volunteer network, we have an opportunity to obtain two used computers for our agency. In addition, a program for animal intake is being written for us so that we may have accurate, up-to-date information on every animal that comes into the Center.
We need to double our volunteer base by Spring. The more well-trained animal care volunteers we have, the better care we are able to provide. It is from our pool of focused volunteers that more rehabilitators emerge.
In addition to animal care volunteers, we need volunteers for many non-animal related jobs such as:
administrative duties construction projects fund raising newsletter coordinator
grant writing educational assistants grounds work systems coordinator
If you are interested in volunteering with our organization, you can obtain a volunteer application form from our web site or you can contact us at 540/989-3798 from 9am to 6pm.
As I stated before, we are asking for your financial support. Roanoke Wildlife Rescue is a non-profit tax-exempt agency and your financial gift is tax deductible. One hundred percent of your donation is utilized in the care and treatment of wildlife.
Now you can make a donation with VISA or Mastercard by clicking the PayPal logo above. Thank you very much!
Sincerely
Dorothy Runion, Director