On August 7th, Second Chance Wildlife Center was hit with a severe thunderstorm. The storm produced gravel sized hail and 50 mile per hour winds. The staff and volunteers in the house weathered the storm just fine, our pine tree out back did not. Our pine tree fell on to our largest outdoor pre-release cage, which at the time was housing 16 of our recovered geese preparing for release. Unfortunately one goose was killed instantly and a second was euthanized because of the severe injuries it sustained. The remaining 14 geese were uninjured.

Our cage was the third casualty. Three of the four walls as well as the roof sustained extensive damage and will have to be replaced. The cage is currently unfit to house any of our animals. We are currently trying to repair the damage to the cage, if you can offer any support during the rebuilding process such as the donation of materials or labor, it would be greatly appreciated.

To see pictures of the damage, go here

We will be holding new orientation sessions at the end of August. Please go to our volunteer opportunities page to sign up!!

We need heating pads that do NOT automatically shut off. It seems all the new heating pads they have nowadays automatically shut off after 20 minutes or so. What we need are heating pads that will NOT automatically shut off. If you have an older model, consider upgrading and donating the old one to us! Thanks!

We are looking for people who have ponds on their property, away from roads, where geese nest each year. If you think you have a suitable pond, and wouldn’t mind an additional goose or two, please contact us. We will send a representative to check out the area and, if suitable, will contact you when orphaned goslings are presented to the center. If your geese have babies the same age as our orphans, we may be able to introduce our youngsters to that family. Not only will that free up space at our center but the gosling will get the best possible care. We do our best but we really cannot compete with a natural parent when it comes to raising a wild animal.

Please let us know if you would be interested in participating in this effort to find foster parents for the young goslings. You can email us at wildchris@mindspring.com or call between 9 and 5 any day at 301-926-9453.

We would like to thank several businesses for allowing us to place donation cans on site, thus helping us to help the animals and spread the word a little more. For a list of those businesses and their locations, go to the Donation Can Project page.

Last Updated:  8/13/2008