Central Arkansas Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc

Call Directions

Central Arkansas Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc Chanceree Catlett AGFC Wildlife Rehabber
501c3 Non-Profit

08/29/2026

She was never supposed to be the one poisoned.

Yesterday, I took in this approximately 4-month-old juvenile bobcat after she was rescued by Animal Control and rushed to a veterinarian. Somehow, despite the severity of her condition, the amazing veterinary team at Wedington Animal Hospital was able to save her life.

But saving her life doesn’t mean we were able to save everything.

This little bobcat is emaciated and suffering from neurological impairment. She is so docile that it almost feels like she isn’t a bobcat at all. And at four months old, that is anything but normal. A healthy juvenile bobcat should be alert, wary, reactive, and ready to disappear the moment a human gets too close.

Instead, she sits quietly and allows us to handle her.

And then there are her eyes.

Those bright, glowing red eyes aren’t beautiful or magical. They are the result of retinal hemorrhaging caused by rodenticide poisoning. The poison has damaged her eyes so severely that she may not see again.

This is the devastating part of rodenticide that is so often overlooked.

Rodent poison doesn’t always stop with the rodent.

A mouse or rat eats the poison. A predator eats that poisoned rodent. The toxin is passed up the food chain.

For a wild predator like a bobcat, hunting rodents is simply part of life. She didn’t raid a bait station. She didn’t make a choice to ingest poison. She simply did what a wild bobcat is supposed to do—she ate her prey.

And now, at just four months old, she may have lost her ability to ever live the life she was born to live.

She may never stalk through the woods at dusk.
She may never climb a tree after her prey.
She may never feel the freedom of being a wild bobcat.

And all because a poison intended for one animal made its way into another.

This is the ripple effect of rodenticide.

Wildlife doesn’t understand what a poison bait station is. They only understand prey.

If you use rodenticide, please understand that the animal who ultimately pays the price may not be the animal you intended to kill.

Sometimes, it’s a four-month-old bobcat who was simply trying to survive.

08/29/2026

This young juvenile raccoon was picked up off the side of the road, seemingly hit by a car.

“Why won’t someone just come get it?”We hear these questions ALL the time.And honestly, we understand why. When you find...
08/29/2026

“Why won’t someone just come get it?”

We hear these questions ALL the time.

And honestly, we understand why. When you find an injured or orphaned wild animal, your first thought is, “Surely there’s someone who can help.”

The reality is that wildlife rehabilitation in Arkansas is stretched incredibly thin. There simply aren’t enough publicly listed rehabilitators to meet the demand.

We’re located in Saline County, surrounded by Pulaski and Garland counties — together representing more than 638,000 people. Yet there are only a handful of publicly listed wildlife rehabilitators serving these communities.

That means when the phone rings, there may not be someone immediately available to answer. A text may not get an instant response. A rehabilitator may not have the space, supplies, species authorization, or ability to take another animal. And sometimes, the person who found the animal may need to help transport it.

It isn’t because we don’t care.
It’s because there simply aren’t enough of us.

Wildlife rehab is a labor of love, but it is also exhausting, expensive, and incredibly time-consuming.

So the next time you’re waiting for a response from your local rehabber, please remember there is a person on the other end of that phone who is likely already caring for a room full of animals.

And if you want to help change the situation, there are so many ways you can:

💵 Donate to help provide food, medications, formula, vaccines and supplies
🚘 Volunteer your time or help transport
📚 Learn about wildlife rehabilitation
🌿 Consider becoming a rehabilitator yourself

We don’t need people to simply ask, “Who will help?”

We need more people willing to say, “I’ll help.”

Address

Benton, AR
72019

Telephone

+14796756188

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Central Arkansas Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category