Puget Sound Wildcare

Education: n 2022 our pre-veterinary internship program continued to be wildly popular. We had about 40 applicants for 11 non-paid internships. People have come from all across the country for this program because it offers experience with small animals, exotic animals, small farm livestock, and shelter medicine all in one place. Many homeless cats are helped as a result. The Feral Cat Tamers program was able to provide advice for people with stray cat issues. We took in 151 felines and adopted out 145 to indoor only homes.

Animal Care:In 2022 we logged 1,386 calls from the public and assisted them by advising on wildlife problems or referring them to wildlife care centers in Puget Sound. We spend 16 days in administrative law court over allegations by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife that regulations were broken. In this very large case with many accusations and a 33 page written verdict, we won every count. The revocation was overturned and they were directed to return wildlife care permits to us. We spent much of 2022 rebuilding our wildlife housing because animal care standards changed in 2020 and we were specifically required to upgrade before any inspections could be made. We moved 4 enclosures from the veterinary hospital property to the annex where more wildlife care activity will be done as we restart. We conversted a classroom spacce to an overflow ward because the WDWF changed their regulations so we need to separate all prey and predator species. We special ordered two 8' diameter pools made for pelagic birds. Then we made custom netting for them and bought a large 40' canopy to protect the birds from falling avian droppings to prevent against any potential exposure to Bird Flu.