St. Johns Wildlife Care, Inc. was established in 1989 for the purpose of serving its community and more importantly all native orphaned or injured wildlife. The main goals of this organization have always been; to rescue and release native species of wildlife for a quick return to the wild, as well as, to educate the community about both the importance of native wildlife and ways in which we can all benefit them, and benefit from them. Something especially unique about our organization is that we are an entirely volunteer organization. Every member of the board as well as our rehabbers and other volunteers truly believes in the importance and necessity of preserving our community’s native species. Our organization depends solely upon memberships, donations, and money received through fund-raising efforts.

St. Johns Wildlife Care is very civic minded. When ever possible, members of this organization give talks and demonstrations to our school children, in cooperation with radio addresses to help educate the public. Our goal is to invite visits to our facility for whole classes to see first hand the importance of native wildlife. We also publish free of charge, a spring and fall issue of our newsletter with helpful tips on how to deal with wildlife in the community. St. Johns Wildlife Care is also heavily involved in both river and beach clean-up efforts, and has long been a supporter of the EPA’s Marine Turtle Program. Our organization is also the only one in the area that will deal with potentially dangerous or infectious animals. In this way we provide an invaluable service to the safety of our community.

St. Johns Wildlife Care receives an average of 300 calls per month, twenty-four hours a day, and tries to respond to as many as possible. Sometimes callers just need information, but more often we are required to go to the location and rescue injured or orphaned animals.

With decreases in natural habitat, there is an increased need for wild animal care. It is essential that we continue to grow and educate ourselves, as a community, of the importance of all native species of wildlife. With our community’s continued encroachment into these vital habits, it is necessary for us to bolster our education efforts to find a common ground upon which our communities and their wild species can peaceably coexist.

THE NEED: With growth, St. Johns County is experiencing the same phenomenon that caused headlines in south Florida: “Broward Debates Killing Wild Animals” (Florida Times Union, June 9, 1989). Habitat destruction and increase in human contact with native wildlife is creating problems foe every county in Florida. Most counties are totally unprepared, and wildlife calls fall between agencies that are unprepared to answer questions, much less handle a frightened or sick raccoon, fox, skunk, bat or bobcat etc. If we develop a program now to educate the public in living with their wild neighbors and to handle the calls on potentially dangerous sick and injured wildlife, we may avoid future difficulties.

If we are to keep up with the increasing volume of wildlife calls, St. Johns Wildlife Care, along with other Rehabilitators in our Florida counties must have money for the foods to feed the animals that we have in our care, capture equipment (squeeze traps, have-a-heart traps, transport kennels, capture nets, and syringes and tranquilizing solutions), and to provide rabies pre-exposure shots for the volunteers who do most of the dangerous animal calls and care. Without some kind of funding or help in some way, this is almost impossible for most Rehabilitators to do with the money that is available for Wildlife Rehabilitation. 

OUR QUALIFICATIONS: St. Johns Wildlife Care was established in 1989 as an all-volunteer, charitable 501(c) (3) organization dedicated to the care and release of sick, injured and orphaned Native Florida Wildlife. We answer calls 24-hours a day, 365 days a year for City Police, the Sheriff’s Office, the Highway Patrol, the Humane Society and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, along with the Residents in our counties. Many of the animals we handle for the county are dangerous and maybe potentially rabid – skunks, raccoons, foxes, bobcats, just to name a few.

From January 1989 to the present we have exceeded the Statistics for the same period the year before. In the Spring of 1998, during the Fire Storms, we handled more calls on distempered raccoon and fox than we handled in any 2 years before. During the Hurricanes of 2004, we had a total of 104 nursing baby animals at one time, which did not include sick or injured wildlife in our care. As well as, the increasing habitat destruction … this is causing animal populations to squeeze into smaller and smaller territories.

LONG TERM: Our goal is to one day have a Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Complex, which will include a fully equipped infirmary, storage for food, medicines and supplies, and space for indoor caging. It will also include outdoor caging for recovering wildlife (professionally designed aviaries and enclosures). A nursery, for infant orphans and a resource room for educational activities. It will also include an outdoor display area which will house a limited number of non-releasable Native Wild Animals in re-creations of their Native Habitat foe on site educational programs.

This is St. Johns Wildlife Cares Long Term Goals.

St. Johns Wildlife Care is committed to the rehabilitation of injured and orphaned Native Florida Wildlife. The center operates under Karen and Randy Inman in St. Augustine, Florida, who oversee rescues, rehabilitation, long term care, and animal release.

St. Johns Wildlife Care Inc., is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c) (3) organization which receives no county, state or federal assistance. Operating solely on donations from private, caring citizens and businesses, we accept as many injured or orphaned wildlife animals as we can. No fees are ever charged for services offered.

The organization is governed by a Board of Trustees, listed below:

President and Secretary: Karen Inman

Coordinator: Randy Inman

Treasurer: Nancy Barnard
 

Participating Member of:

National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association

Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Association

National Opossum Society