Can you give us an idea of the goals and activities of Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (PWRC)?
 

Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre is an organization that aims to bring harmony to human and wildlife relationships. We have the only two certified Wildlife Rehabilitators in Manitoba who provide first-aid care for wild animals who have become sick, injured or orphaned. Many of these animals find themselves in these predicaments becasue of urbanization.

How did you find PWRC? Why did you decide to work with wild animals?

I have been with PWRC from the very beginning. It started out as a group of volunteers who had many ideas for building a state-of-the-art centre in Manitoba. I decided to work with wildlife because I loved animals and I wanted to meet as many different species as possible. Wildlife rehabilitation is perfect for this! My favourite part is working with the infant animals who are orpahned. It’s so rewarding to take a little squirrels the size of a couple of beans, watch it grow up and release it, all in four months.

Where does PWRC provide it's services?

We take in animals from all over manitoba. In the past we have gotten minks and owls from cities and towns all over Manitoba. We have airline company sponsors who transport the animals to us. We have gotten animals from Island Lake, MB, Tadoule Lake, MB, Pinawa, MB. We are also collecting a data base of volunteers who go to their cabins in the summer, or of people going camping for the weekend, so if we are alerted to an injured animal in that area we can contact them to transport the animal to us.

What kind of work does PWRC do?  What kind of animals do you receive, and how many do you return to the wild?

With wildlife rehabilitation in Manitoba we get many different animals like muskrats, woodchucks, squirrels, rabbits, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, bald eagles, great horned owls, pigeons, crows and sparrows. In fact we have a blog http://pwrc.wordpress.com that keeps readers updated on new patients that come through our doors. A wildlife rehabbers job is to provide first aid care to the animals as well as a proper environment and diet for the animal to recover. This means that preparing food, „enriching” animals cages with proper branches, cleaning wounds, wrapping wings, and feeding formula to many infant animals is all in a day’s work.

How does PWRC operate financially? How can we help you out?

We rely heavily on volunteers and donations as well as grants. There are so many ways you can help.

We are always looking for volunteers to do educational presentations. Volunteers learn a presentation and are trained to handle a raptor and then educate the public about wildlife!

We have wishlists on our websites that contain items such as old t-shirts (for squirrel hammocks), newspaper, Canadian Tire money and garbage bags. If you are good with construction you can build us some squirrel houses or enclosures (contact us for more info). If you have special skills like graphic design, or event planning please volunteer for us!!

Of course you can give a typical donation, we have PayPal on our website www.pwildlife.ca. You can also support by purchasing a membership or shop at our online store which has many cool items.

Kids can also get their class to do a fundraiser and if they raise $100 they will get a special visit from one of our wildlife ambassdors (some of which include a great horned owl and a peregrine falcon).

If you’re an ambitious donor you can sponsor an intensive care unit (price: $1100) which will provide a controlled environment for sick animals and baby birds which require very special conditions to survive in captivity. Having a unit like this in our centre is an asset and we are looking for a sponsor.

Does Canada have lots of wildlife rehabilitation centres?

Generally every province has 1 rehabilitation centre.

Rehabilitating an animal (ex. an orphan) takes a lot of time and energy, which could be used instead for larger-scale projects such as to protect an entire river. Is wildlife rehabilitation focused on helping individual animals or does in serve educational purposes as well?

Certainly wildlife rehabilitation is focused on helping individual animals, after all our motto is „making a difference, one wild life at a time”. Personally, what keeps me going with wildlife rehabilitation is respect for the other creatures we share this environment with. Most of the animals that come to our centre are there because of urbanization, whether it’s an owl hitting a window or squirrel that got hit by a car, so I do see it as our responsibility to help them. Also with endangered species in Manitoba such as the Peregrine Falcon or the Burrowing Owl, individuals are significant. I believe it is important for wildlife rehabilitation centres to collect information on how these types of species are best kept in capativity and successfully released back into the wild through documentation and banding techniques. Wildlife centres are also good for detecting changes in the number of injured, sick and orphaned animals and can play a role in detecting ecological problems in the area. You could say we are keeping a watchful eye on the natural world. Our centre also provides good research data for researchers, although it is important to note that the animals are never sacrificed and their rehabilitaton never compromised in the name of research. So I think we do much more than just help individual animals. Of course all of our experience is also used to educate the public to live in harmony with wildlife. We do educational presentations at schools, events and fairs teaching people about wild animals and answering any questions they might have about wildlife issues.

You can learn about the organization on the website www.pwildlife.ca, which you made yourself. When did you begin to be interested in programming and did you learn it all on your own?

I don’t really do any computer programming, I only do some website design with HTML and CSS code. I was interested in computers since I was a little child, which probably started becasue my dad is a computer programmer. As far as websites go I have learned everything on my own, which is a little bit difficult. I really wanted to be independent and have my own business, so I made my first website probably at age 11. Ha ha. I still don’t own a bussiness, but I can make a website :)

In what ways do you use your computer skills, do your future goals involve computers/technology?

I mostly make websites for charities or organizations becasue I think that everyone should have a website! It created many opportunities for PWRC, bringing in donations with PayPal and someone from New Mexico bought one of our prints that we were selling. I like the idea of the information exchange aspect of globalization and think everyone should participate! I don’t know what lies in my future, but I will definitely always use these skills because they are so useful.

You are taking university classes, volunteering for PWRC, do you have any other interests?

Yes, right now I am taking acting classes which is a lot of fun!

Do you have time to relax?

Yes, I relax by doing things I love. I love to travel, even just being in an airport is relaxing to me. My sister recently had to go to another city for a skating competition and I volunteered to drive her to the airport at 5 am just so I could go there. I also love watching movies, finding new bands to listen to and looking at artwork and photography.