Company Profile
Center for Wildlife
Company Overview
The Center for Wildlife is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to cultivate and strengthen relationships between humans, wildlife and the environment resulting in a healthier, more sustainable community.
To this end, we focus on three goals:
1. Strengthen our community’s overall health through the interdisciplinary approach of conservation medicine**.
2. Expand community outreach and provide learning opportunities to educate and inspire people of all ages to value the connection between wildlife, human, and environmental health.
3. Achieve and advance a diverse and viable fundraising strategy, ensuring long-term financial sustainability to support the successful growth and continued demand for our work in the community.
**Conservation medicine within Center for Wildlife is defined as: Combining veterinary medicine and natural history to return local wildlife to their ecosystems, utilizing patient information to support conservation efforts, and contributing data to the study of health relationships at the wildlife, human, environmental junction.
Company History
A veterinarian in York, Maine founded Center for Wildlife in 1986. The first year of operation, the phone typically rang once per week, and 100 wildlife patients were admitted. The Center was operated out of a trailer with no running water. In 1994, the Center moved to its current site in Cape Neddick, Maine, and within 5 years was treating over 1,000 animals annually.
Today, Center for Wildlife proudly serves the New England region typically managing 2,000 patients each year (native wildlife injured because of vehicle collisions, domestic pets, pollution, fishing lines, oil spills, and other human-related causes), representing more than 190 species of birds, reptiles, and mammals. The goal of our wildlife clinic is to not only medically treat and provide rehabilitation to injured wild animals so that they can be released back to the wild but also use data collected to better support broad systemic change.
For over 20 years, Center for Wildlife has also provided environmental education outreach programs bringing live animal ambassadors to schools, libraries, state parks, senior centers, professional conferences, and many other venues. Our Project Wild educators now provide a unique learning experience to over 13,000 individuals each year and enjoys partnerships with local groups committed to environmental education. Through our social media and outreach program we have a national as well as international following. The Center also offers robust internship and apprenticeship programs, and has an active volunteer base.
We collaborate with regional universities and the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife to prepare for and address natural disasters and zoonotic diseases. Center for Wildlife’s Wildlife Assistance Hotline also fields over 15,000 calls each year, providing guidance to callers from all over New England.