Care for AWARE's Ambassador Animals

One of the most unique things about AWARE Wildlife Center's education program is it's placement program for nonreleasable wildlife. Animals are considered nonreleasable if their injuries can be healed but make them otherwise unable to survive in the wild. AWARE currently has 19 nonreleasable wild animals. We permanently house and care for these animals for the remainder of their lives. In turn, we train them to take part in our education programs where they help us teach the public about how to peacefully interact with wildlife and why concern for wildlife is so vital to the environment and local as well as global sustainability.

AWARE is a small center and just one of a few in the metropolitan Atlanta region. The Nonreleasable Placement Program was specifically created 4 years ago to answer AWARE's need to find an alternative solution to humane euthanasia for animals that were otherwise healthy but that AWARE could not house at its facility. Sassy's story is a wonderful example of one such animal!

In January of 2016, a young white-tailed deer was brought to AWARE. Found alone outside having seizures the previous spring, she was taken in and cared for by a Georgia rehabilitator for several months before arriving at AWARE. Working with a veterinarian, the rehabilitator helped manage her seizures with medication as she grew to be a "teenager." When the deer, affectionately named Sassy, became too big to live with the rehabilitator, she came to AWARE where we took over her care.

The frequency of Sassy's seizures warranted daily medication, as well as bloodwork every so often. Sassy did not mind taking her medication in a piece of fruit, but she did not like getting her blood drawn. (Who does?!)  After three months in our care, Sassy's medications were adjusted to just the right dosage to minimize her daily seizures. Since she would obviously not be able to survive in the wild without her daily medication, we found her a wonderful place to live--A New Hope Animal Sanctuary--where she will help to educate the many visitors to the sanctuary each year about the importance of her species.

Renamed Juniper, Sassy now lives among nonreleasable foxes, lemurs, coatimundis, and many other non-releasable wild animals. She gets to come out of her enclosure often for walks, and she will receive good care and the best possible quality of life with her new family.

AWARE has placed animals across the United States and Canada. When you support AWARE's Ambassador Animal Program, you also support our Nonreleasable Placement Program and provide "educational sustainability" to other wildlife and nature centers with similar missions and visions. More importantly, we are proud of the care and respect that these nonreleasable ambassadors will receive in their new homes for the duration of their lives.

Links:

• AWARE Website