We Are Still Here to Help Wildlife
We are still here to help Nebraska's wildlife and you in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. You can still contact us if:
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You need general information about wildlife.
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You need answers to homework problems!
If it's about Nebraska's wildlife in any way, we are here to help.
How You Can Help
There are several things you can do to help us help wildlife this spring:
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If you find a wild animal that you think might need help, contact us first! (Telephone, E-Mail, or Facebook Messenger)
Why? Because we only want to take animals out of the wild that actually need human help. In addition, transferring wildlife into care puts you out in the community and puts people in contact with each other, and we want to minimize that risk.
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If we decide we need to rescue that animal, we ask you to wear gloves or use a towel to put that animal into a secure cardboard box, a pet taxi, or a rubbermaid container with holes poked in it that you don't want back.
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If you are able to, we ask that you drop the animal(s) in that container off in the drop boxes at the Nebraska Humane Society at 90th and Fort St. in Omaha.
This minimizes human interaction in the wildlife transfer and allows us to get that wild animal quickly, as we go there several times a day to pick-up wildlife.
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If you live outside of the Omaha metro and aren't able to take the animal to the Nebraska Humane Society, we still have some volunteers and staff members able to meet you to transfer the wild animal.
In order to maintain social distancing, we will ask you to:
Place the animal in a secure container as noted above.
When our transporter arrives, place the container outside of your car and get back in your car (or on your porch and go back inside).
Our transporter will take the entire container and leave.
We do need certain information about the animal and you, and we will collect all of that information from you by telephone or e-mail (rather than on a paper form). Please be sure to respond if one of our staff members contacts you for this information.
A Few Other Notes
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Staffing
Right now we have only a small crew taking care of animals at NWR - this includes 5 staff members and 1 volunteer working on site and a small team of pre-approved volunteers caring for wild animals in their homes. This is to ensure we maintain social distancing guidelines and we all stay as healthy as possible. We are not allowing others on site at this time.
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We TRULY APPRECIATE all the offers for volunteer help that are coming in! Right now, due to social distancing regulations, we have restricted our rehabilitation site as noted above, so we are not accepting new volunteers here.Those restrictions will have to stay in place until things improve. BUT if you are interested in volunteering, please do go to our Volunteering page and complete and submit an application. If you have already submitted one, you will be contacted as soon as we are able to schedule trainings again.
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Our New Building
We have been receiving inquiries about our new Wildlife Center and Veterinary Hospital here in Omaha. As you know, we've purchased that building and were planning on completing renovations this spring and summer so that we could open in the fall. With everything that's happening in the world right now, with economic and health concerns, we recognize that it is a difficult time for fundraising. We want you to know that we are still committed to our community and the state of Nebraska and we have high hopes that we will be able to raise the funds by October 2020 and have that building open for you all by the spring of 2021. We'll keep you updated.
At NWR, we know that we are all continuing to deal with an uncertain future in the coming months. We are here to help you in any way we can. If you can also help us help our wild neighbors, it is truly appreciated!
