St. Francis Wildlife Association, Inc.

2024 Has Been a Year of Transformation and Growth at St. Francis Wildlife

St. Francis Wildlife has undergone significant improvements in 2024. Essential facility upgrades, including new laundry equipment, a modernized porch, and a repaired access road, have enhanced the center's operations. Additionally, investments in technology, like a new payment system and clock-in system, have streamlined processes. The center has also prioritized staff well-being by providing raises and addressing basic needs like HVAC and septic systems. Constant upgrades were necessary as a result of continued wear and tear of an old rehab hospital.

Our Challenges and Future Goals

Despite these advancements, St. Francis Wildlife faces ongoing challenges. Aging enclosures, particularly the critical eagle flight enclosure, require urgent attention.

Hurricanes have continued to make maintaining all of our wooden outdoor enclosures difficult, with falling trees and wood rot making them unusable.

Our dream is to construct new, state-of-the-art enclosures for raptors and other wildlife, which means a complete overhaul and removal of the old wooden enclosures that are now deteriorating. Once concrete is poured, new, modernized metal enclosures--that will stand the test of time--can replace them.

Furthermore, the costs of rehabilitating various species, especially songbirds and raptors, remain substantial--a much-needed eagle flight enclosure, alone, is $110,000.

We Need Your Support

Our needs are significant. To realize these ambitious goals, St. Francis Wildlife needs your support. Your donations will directly fund essential repairs, new enclosures, and ongoing wildlife care. By contributing, you'll help ensure a brighter future for the region's wildlife and the dedicated team at St. Francis Wildlife.

Every dollar and share help us reach our goal. Thank you for helping us continue to save our native wildlife.

Our Mission

The St. Francis Wildlife Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of native wildlife in North Florida through the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife, and through public education.

Our Problem

We are experiencing a critical need for new outdoor enclosures on the grounds of St. Francis Wildlife. All of the enclosures that are currently in use are made of untreated wood which, over time, has deteriorated and rotted away simply from being exposed to the elements. Throughout the last several years, our staff has been tinkering, patching, and rigging these enclosures to keep them in working condition, but it is becoming incredibly difficult to continue repairing these structures.

All of the enclosures were built around the same time, which means they are all overdue to be repaired or replaced. Not only is this wood vulnerable to rotting, it is also a porous, organic material which means it is literally impossible to disinfect and keep free of contagious diseases. These diseases affect our healthy orphans, such as our raccoons, once they are big enough to be moved outside. Despite staff thoroughly cleaning the enclosures, implementing rigorous protocols; such as fully vaccinating the raccoons and practicing strict disease control, our raccoon patients are still becoming ill from the viruses harbored within these wooden structures.

Our Solution

We need to build entirely new enclosures made of materials that can be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized time and time again. These new structures will be composed of metal walls and a cement floor; poured in such a way to ensure proper drainage. Surrounding the enclosure will be a perimeter fence that will keep wild animals on the outside from coming into contact with our rehabilitation patients housed inside the enclosure. This set up would allow us to thoroughly disinfect the space in between patients, ensuring no illness can be left behind. It would also be much more durable and last for many decades to come.

We Need You

Because we are a non-profit organization, we are entirely dependent on donations from the public to make this dream into a reality. With your help, we would be able to build a large metal enclosure that can safely house not only raccoons, but also other sensitive animals; such as foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and otters. This enclosure would truly be a life-changing improvement to many of the animals we raise every year here at St. Francis Wildlife.

Our Goal

We will need to raise a total of $30,000 in order to build a long-lasting, mammal enclosure that will keep these sensitive animals safe through their final stages of rehabilitation. Should we exceed this goal, we will be able to continue building new enclosures, and properly repair existing ones. We will also be able to get to work on other important projects; such as building a new quarantine shed, installing a new roof for our songbird aviary, building new enclosures for our raptors, and extending our porch to house even more patients.

Thank You

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and learn about our patients critical needs. Please consider donating today to help us reach our goal. You can also help by sharing our message with friends and family and on social media. Again, we could not do what we do without your support and we cannot thank you enough for helping St. Francis Wildlife continue the important and necessary work of wildlife rehabilitation.