Wildlife West Rescue Center – Edgewood, New Mexico

DATE:  04/28/2015

SITE:  Wildlife West Rescue Center

LOCATION:  87 North Frontage Road, Edgewood, Santa Fe Co., New Mexico

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

Dana and I saw several signs advertising this place and she really wanted to see it. Having never been to a rescue place, I thought it might be interesting….A noble undertaking by the staff…caring for hurt animals or what we found more often, caring for animals that had imprinted on humans and so could not survive in the wild.

I have to say that by the end of our visit, we had to question whether, and this is not going to be at all popular, but, unless saving an endangered species from extinction, wouldn’t it have been more humane to let these animals have a peaceful death?

I’ve read reviews on this place by others but Dana and I saw something completely different. We saw animals totally unengaged and some under obvious stress, pacing back and forth. I don’t know, maybe we are not interpreting what we saw correctly but several times we mentioned to each other how alone and lonely the animals seemed.

Our first clue should have been that we were the only visitors there but we paid our entrance fee and got a map of the place. I am no slouch when it comes to reading maps but that thing made no sense and more than once I just tossed it in my purse and wandered until I found what I was looking for.

The first enclosure is for the Prairie Dogs of which we saw exactly zero. I guess depending on the time of day, they just may have not been active.

The next area were the birds and they had quite a few. …

There were 2 of these Crested Carcara’s…a brother and sister, Max and Polly who, one of the volunteers told us, constantly breed but never have hatched any chicks. The whole time we were there, they paced back and forth along a ledge poking at the window.

A turkey vulture named Festus

We passed by a “western town”, a “theater” and an “amphitheater” that has seen much better days.

 

Next was Wile E. Coyote. We were told she loves to play with her toys and was very active but when we were there, she laid against the fence and never once looked our way.

Forest, the grey fox, paced back and forth over and over again and it was obvious he does this on a regular basis because there is a worn area that really isn’t that big.

 

The absolute bright spot of our visit was the elk….The sign said there were 3 of them, but we only saw the one. He came right up to the fence and licked my sneakers.

 

 

Orea or Rachel, the raccoon was snoozing away…something you’d expect from a nocturnal animal.

 The place was shabby and in need of some care. This is in no way meant to undermine the dedication or determination of the staff. We met several going about their work and willing to talk to us about the animals. My guess is the shabbiness directly relates to the fund raising done to support the group.

Looking at their website and the reviews of this place, it sure seems as if we were viewing another place entirely. Maybe they ramp up for the summer?

I haven’t been to any other facility with the same objective as this group so I really don’t have anything to compare it to…all I know is that when we left, we were profoundly sad for the animals.