Humane Indiana Wildlife

Call Directions Website

Humane Indiana Wildlife Humane Indiana Wildlife Rehabilitation Center provides expert medical care for injured and orphaned animals native to Indiana.
(2)

The education center provides educational opportunities for community groups, schools, and internships for college students. The Moraine Ridge Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was founded in 1997 by a group of wildlife rehabilitators and enthusiasts. Their primary mission then and now is to rescue, rehabilitate and return orphaned and injured wildlife to the wild. A second parallel and equally essential part of the mission is to provide educational opportunities for the community that promotes informed and humane interaction with native wildlife. In 2003 two acres of wooded, rural land adjacent to a state designated wildlife habitat was donated to the organization and in 2005 ground was broken to construct a building designed to serve their mission. The building was completed in 2008 with widespread community support, including a challenge grant from the Porter County Convention Recreation and Visitors Commission, generous cash donations and substantial gifts of labor and materials from individuals. For many years Moraine Ridge depended almost entirely on volunteers to accomplish its mission. In 2014 MRWRC became a subsidiary of the Humane Society Calumet Area. This brought about the ability to hire professional staff and gave access to a sophisticated infrastructure which allows us to substantially expand the scope of our mission and services.

👀🎃Some of our ambassadors put on their painting pants today to help us prepare for our Halloween Fundraiser! If you were...
10/15/2026

👀🎃Some of our ambassadors put on their painting pants today to help us prepare for our Halloween Fundraiser!

If you were here last year and participated, great! If you are new to the opportunity to win your very own ambassador artwork... Get ready!!

We will announce the fundraiser details on Saturday for the kickoff! Be sure to keep your eyes on the page for how to participate! 🫟🍬

10/14/2026

Errol is a surrogate Great Horned Owl who has been at our center since 2018, helping us raise young Great Horned Owls who have lost their own parents. This year she has had 4 other Great Horned Owls with her for the better part of the summer months! Within the next two weeks all of her enclosure mates will be released back to the wild and Errol will finally have her enclosure all to herself again.

Errol arrived at our center in 2018 at less than a month old herself. A wing injury, from falling out of her nest, rendered her flightless and left her with a permanent eye injury as well. Since 2019 Errol has had chicks with her every year and has done a wonderful job making them feel right at home.

This older adult opossum had a very unfortunate run in with a dog that ultimately may have ended up saving her life... T...
10/12/2026

This older adult opossum had a very unfortunate run in with a dog that ultimately may have ended up saving her life... This adult opossum was admitted to the center this past week with a bite wound to her back and back of her neck. The areas around the wounds were cleared of hair and her wounds were debrided and cleaned. We also started her on antibiotics and pain medication to help her heal and be comfortable.

Now, the part where this unfortunate incident may have actually saved her... This opossum came in skinny, and with an already existent infection on her back that had clearly been festering for some time. While she was feisty, she wasn't moving quickly, which is how she was likely caught by the dog. Looking at her ears, muzzle, and scars on her body it is very clear she has had a rough life.

Now at the center she is on her way to healing and being returned to the wild in better shape than before she was even attacked by the dog. It is likely that she will be with us until the spring, based on the severity of her injuries and infections, but we are happy to house her until she is ready to be returned to the wild.

Thank you to Maria of Maria Overlay Art for hosting her painting fundraiser to support our efforts to care for injured a...
10/09/2026

Thank you to Maria of Maria Overlay Art for hosting her painting fundraiser to support our efforts to care for injured and orphaned native wildlife! Her beautiful painting of our Barred Owl, Arya, now has a new home with Allison M. Thanks to Maria's fundraiser, $280 was raised to help wildlife in need!

10/08/2026

After recovering from being trapped in a window well for several days, this Northern Short-tailed Shrew was ready to be returned back to the wild! 😍

This time of year can be extremely difficult. Nearly gone are the healthy babies coming into the center to be raised and...
10/07/2026

This time of year can be extremely difficult. Nearly gone are the healthy babies coming into the center to be raised and returned to the wild. This time of year sees an influx of poisoned animals, patients with mange, hit by car patients, disease, and failure to thrive bird of prey juveniles.

This young fox is the 3rd to arrive at our center in the last week. Sadly, our first fox patient, admitted from Valparaiso last week, succumbed to her rodenticide poisoning. The second young fox had been hit by a vehicle and her severe internal trauma was too much for her body to sustain.

This young fox, is by far the most dramatic looking, with her moderately severe case of mange. We have already started her on antibiotics and have administered Bravecto to kill the mange mites that are causing her ailment. Within the next few weeks she will look much different than she does now!

We are grateful for those who are rescuing and bringing these patients to our care. For those who are assisting us by providing x-rays to determine if an animal can be saved. We cannot do this alone and the sheer abundance of animals brought to our center each year speaks to how important this work is to our community.

If you would like to support our mission to provide care for thousands of wildlife in need please consider donating at www.humaneindiana.org/donate (choose wildlife in the dropdown) or donate to this post.

This beautiful Short-eared Owl was admitted this morning after being found by Munster Steel employees late yesterday aft...
10/06/2026

This beautiful Short-eared Owl was admitted this morning after being found by Munster Steel employees late yesterday afternoon. They were quickly able to contain the bird due to its fractured wing and placed it in a quiet location to keep it as calm as possible.

This morning we were able to determine that the wing fracture is located in its right humerus near the middle of the bone. We will be dropping off this owl patient for X-rays tomorrow to determine if the wing can be surgically repaired with pins and fixtures.

Short-eared Owls are one of Indiana’s more unusual owls. Unlike Barred or Great Horned Owls, these birds prefer wide-open grasslands, and they’re often active while there’s still enough daylight to watch them hunt. In Indiana, the Short-eared Owl is currently listed as state endangered, largely reflecting how scarce suitable grassland habitat has become.

Fifteen opossums are spending their first night back in the wild after being raised by our animal care team! These babie...
10/04/2026

Fifteen opossums are spending their first night back in the wild after being raised by our animal care team! These babies came to us after their mothers had been hit by vehicles.

We are grateful to those who signed up as release sites so that we can spread the opossum love! Didn't get a call this time around? Please be patient. We had dozens of people reach out to be release sites and we are slowly matching babies rescue sites with release locations!

Young Red-tailed Hawks admissions increase, each year, in the fall. Within the last month over a dozen young red-tails h...
10/03/2026

Young Red-tailed Hawks admissions increase, each year, in the fall. Within the last month over a dozen young red-tails have come into our care due to starvation, vehicular strikes, or West Nile. This hawk was admitted showing symptoms of lethargy and the inability to fly. Upon admission it was confirmed that he is starving and was likely grounded due to the lack of strength needed to fly.

We are providing supportive care and feeding critical care formula as he continues to improve. Once he is stable enough, we will be able to move to whole prey food. The primary consideration is determining why he wasn't feeding himself. An extended stay in our flight enclosure, with a lesson on love prey testing, will help to ensure he is more prepared when he returns to the wild.

This is the face of a fox who caused a LOT of drama here in Valparaiso over the last 24 hours. We initially received mul...
10/02/2026

This is the face of a fox who caused a LOT of drama here in Valparaiso over the last 24 hours. We initially received multiple calls about her when she was located behind First Baptist Church on Campbell Street. Neighbors had seen the fox behaving oddly throughout the day but unfortunately she was too fast and mobile to be caught. We spoke to them about getting a live trap to start trying to catch her today ....

But.... This morning we received a call from Valparaiso Rehabilitation and Care, 0.9 miles from First Baptist Church, regarding a fox laying near their front door. Due to its proximity to people, we sent staff to try to contain the fox. Sure enough, it was the same individual. Our rescue attempt failed and she slipped narrowly past us.

Two hours later.... We heard from Arby's 0.5 miles away from the Valparaiso Rehabilitation and Care Center... With a fox near their restaurant. Same fox.

Two MORE hours later ... And a resident on Albert Street, 0.2 miles from Arby's (and directly behind the Valparaiso Rehabilitation and Care Center) called with a fox in their side yard under a pine tree.

By this time our evasive fox was EXHAUSTED and showed increasing neurological symptoms that were pretty minimal this morning. We were able to finally catch her and bring her safely into our care for assessment. PHEW.

SO.... Now that she is in care we were able to determine that she is suffering from rodenticide poisoning, potentially was hit by a vehicle, and has the onset of mange. We were able to provide fluids, anti-inflammatory/pain medications, Vitamin K, and Bravecto before letting her finally rest after her journey.

Rodenticide poisoning takes a very long time to clear from her system so we anticipate her being in our care into the winter months. We also need to determine why she was limping this morning, though our physical exam didn't find any obvious fractures or injuries. If you would like to contribute to her care please consider donating at www.humaneindiana.org/donate or donate on this post!

Address

570 N 450 E
Valparaiso, IN
46383

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4pm
Tuesday 8am - 4pm
Wednesday 8am - 4pm
Thursday 8am - 4pm
Friday 8am - 4pm
Saturday 8am - 4pm
Sunday 8am - 4pm

Telephone

(219) 299-8027

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Humane Indiana Wildlife 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