Orphaned bobcat raised at St. Francis Wildlife

Wildlife rehabilitation involves caring for sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals with the goal of returning each into its natural habitat. At St. Francis Wildlife each animal is examined, diagnosed and treated through an individually tailored program of veterinary and hospital care, feeding, medicating, physical therapy, exercising and pre-release conditioning. Releases are planned for appropriate weather, season, habitat and location.

Some animals, of course, are beyond our help and humanely euthanized. Some unreleasable animals become valuable members of environmental education programs, others are sent to zoos.

Aren't we interfering with nature?
Some people ask, "Why not let nature take its course?" But the majority of the sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals we receive are suffering not because of "natural" occurrences, but because of human intervention -- some accidental, some intentional, many preventable: free-roaming pets; collisions with automobiles, windows, electrical lines, and guy wires; mowers; illegal gun shots; woodcutters, poisoning; entanglement in discarded fishing lines; development; and so on. St.Francis Wildlife eases the suffering of these animals by providing humane care.

St. Francis Wildlife has all necessary permits, from both the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service, which are required by law to possess wildlife.