05/16/2026
I need the local community to understand something about wildlife rehabilitation, because what happened tonight was completely unacceptable and honestly one of the most horrifying things I have experienced in rescue.
Yesterday alone, I worked TWO jobs, cared for 35 foxes in sanctuary, and continued caring for all of the rehabilitation animals currently in my care during the busiest baby season of the year. Like most wildlife rehabilitators, I am exhausted, overwhelmed, and still trying to help every single animal I possibly can.
Around 8 PM, a woman contacted me about two baby raccoons whose mother had been hit by a car. She had ALREADY contained the babies and had them safely in her possession.
I told her that if she could not find anyone else overnight, I would take them in the morning.
The babies were already safe.
Already off the road.
Already contained.
Later that night, one of the resources I had sent her contacted me and said, “She’s going to put them back on the road.”
So after work, with my sick daughter in the car because we had already been out getting medicine for her at CVS, I STILL drove out there.
I searched the road looking for the mother.
What I found was the mother completely obliterated by traffic.
And then I found the babies about 10 feet away from her in the middle of the roadway.
Those babies were tiny. Maybe four weeks old. Less than a pound. They did not stand a chance.
And honestly, I cannot stop thinking about how confusing and terrifying that must have been for them.
They had been picked up.
Contained.
Safe.
And then suddenly placed back next to their dead mother in the dark beside a busy road.
Those babies probably initially tried to curl back up to her body because that was the only safety they understood. And when they realized she wasn’t getting up, they likely tried to cross the road searching for safety again.
That is where they died.
Their bodies were still warm when I found them.
There is absolutely no possible way anyone could believe baby raccoons that young could survive being put back into the middle of the road next to an obliterated animal. They never stood a chance.
And THIS is the reality wildlife rehabilitators are facing more and more this year: overwhelming demand combined with impatience from finders who expect immediate intake, immediate transport, and immediate solutions at all hours of the night.
Most rehabbers I know are already over capacity and not even accepting baby raccoons right now. Despite that, I STILL offered to help if she could not find placement overnight. I STILL drove there after work. I STILL tried.
What is NOT acceptable is deciding the animals are inconvenient and putting them back into the roadway to die.
Wildlife rehabilitators are not government agencies.
We are not paid emergency responders.
We are human beings trying to save lives while balancing jobs, families, our own animals, hundreds of messages, and nonstop baby season emergencies.
If you find orphaned wildlife:
• Keep them safely contained
• Keep them warm, dark, and quiet
• Do NOT feed them
• Reach out to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator
• Understand that help may not always be immediate overnight, but that does NOT mean the animal has been abandoned
Those babies would very likely still be alive this morning if they had simply remained safely contained overnight.
Picture for attention. I'll spare you the picture if the dead babies.
