Affiliate Highlights
Wild Souls Wildlife
W
ild Souls is a non-profit, permitted wildlife rehabilitation center founded in 2017. We rescue and rehabilitate sick, injured, and orphaned native wildlife, returning rehabilitated healthy wildlife back into the wild. Wild Souls has three components: 24-hour hotline- Generally speaking, our hotline exists to inform the public to leave wildlife alone. Not all animals are candidates for rehabilitation. Our goal is to be proactive, preventing a person from rushing wildlife out of their natural habitat and into rehabilitation. Spring is "Wildlife Baby Season," where we average 200 calls a day! Transport Team- Our amazing Transport Team acts as wildlife first responders and travels to the location of the call. They serve many roles, whether to prevent illegal handling of wildlife, cutting the fishing line off an animal and setting it free or assisting in humane eviction by discouraging wildlife from inhabiting a property. We are not permitted to care for federallyprotected birds, so we transport them to a permitted facility. Rehabilitation clinic- Our clinic's main purpose, of course, is to rehabilitate sick and injured wildlife to be released healthy, back into the wild. Our rehabilitation clinic also delivers education on infectious disease, safety, handling, diet, and alternatives to hazardous chemicals like rodenticide. Wild Souls' clinic sits at a consistent, 88% release rate for wildlife. We do not maintain educational or non-release animals as our mission is to keep wildlife in the wild. In only one year, we have outgrown our facility and are already needing to expand! Wild Souls operates 100% on volunteers. Their passion is to preserve and educate the public about Missouri's abundant wildlife and conservation efforts.
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CONSERVATION FEDERATION
Our platform of philanthropy has opened opportunities for many of our volunteers for college internships and has developed an interest in them for becoming conservation agents. Next year, we will begin hosting internships for local college students majoring in science or business. We are so proud of our latest outreach program, "Shop with a Conservation Agent." This program had ten kids from 5 surrounding school districts partnered with an MDC agent to go holiday shopping. The children will be provided with money for shopping, stockings, and a gift card for dinner. We hope this will open opportunities for future conservation leaders in Missouri. Chief Executive Director April Hoffman said of this event, "I love to give back to my community; we have appreciated all of the sincere support in our first few years. We hope to give each child a fun filled day while creating positive relationships with local conservation agents. Conservation agents are mostly unseen but work tirelessly for conservation efforts and public safety. Wild Souls appreciates working with them in these efforts. We want to have them step into the spotlight and connect their passion with the children in this community." "Healing Wildlife and The Human Spirit" Wildsoulswildliferescuerehab.org