Blue Ridge Wildlife Center — Attraction in Berryville

Years ago, we took a groundhog to this facility, and the care, treatment, and communication were exceptional. That animal did not live. It was hit by a car and had a brain injury, and the prognosis was clearly not good. Nonetheless, the facility went to great efforts to stabilize the animal, administer it medications to reduce the brain swelling, and ultimately keeping it alive for three days before it succumbed. Later, I became a monthly donor.

This past weekend, I took a juvenile American Crow to the facility. Entirely different circumstances. The Crow had a wing injury that prevented it from flying and clearly would not survive in the wild, especially through the winter. But, otherwise, the animal was healthy, alert, eating, drinking, and not in any immediate stress. It obviously had lived on its own for some time, as the wound was nearly healed. My intention was to have them look at the Crow and, if they could not guarantee that they would not simply euthanize the animal, to take the animal to another facility that would ensure the animal would not be destroyed. While I was inside trying to confirm that they would not simply kill the animal with the receptionist, a vet technician or vet took the bird from my cage (that was sitting outside) without my consent and hastily removed the Crow to a back entrance of the facility. The receptionist then explained that they could not return the animal once they took possession. I was then reassured that they would do what they could to examine the bird and provide me with updates.

Well, three days later, after repeatedly ignored calls and emails, I was finally told that the bird was immediately euthanized after its intake. "Slightly dehydrated, missing metacarpals (it's fingers), dead cells and infection at the wound, and social traits of Crows" were the reasons. I knew each of these when I dropped off the bird, albeit the infection appeared to be very slight. While I am not a vet, any person with a heart knows the difference between a dying animal and a nuisance. That Crow was deemed a nuisance and euthanized. It stood a better chance remaining in the wild and dealing with the threat of coyotes than going to this facility.

I will never support this organization in any...

Awful. I would not recommending calling this Center. With in 36 hours of me calling to rehome a found baby raccoon and over the Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, they reported me to both the health department and law enforcement at Virginia DNR despite my assurance I was seeking a rehab center for the baby raccoon. I called them to place it.

I found a baby raccoon, eyes still closed, near death, that was swept away from its den during the recent floods. I spent two nights after sunset trying to locate its mother, which she could not be found. So, I called Blue Ridge to re-home the critter.

Twenty-four hours after my initial call, they told me they would not accept an uninjured raccoons and gave me some recommendations to place it. This was Saturday evening on Memorial Day weekend.

They, and I mean Shelby Ramos, did nothing to help but hounded me with text, calls and emails fearmongering about me getting rabies, nagging about placement, and making me feel like a criminal for what I thought was a good deed. She offered to send information for caring for the raccoon, but never did. Instead, she called the Health Department on me who threatened to take the baby and kill it so they could test for rabies. Next, the state’s DNR officer shows up at my business on Memorial Day and demands to take possession of the baby.

Here is my advice: if you find an abandon baby raccoon, do NOT call this center. They will make you feel like a criminal and seek every government agency and law enforcement after you despite trying to do the right thing. Instead, seek out of local rehab center directly, as I had hoped to do the day after Memorial Day. It will preserve your feeling of doing good and avoid you being forced to hand the animal over to an uncertain future. The critter I found may have been better off fending for its self, blind, in the mud, along a busy dog...

These guys do great work rehabilitating our local wildlife! Getting these precious creatures fixed up and released back to the wild is their main objective. A lovely staff of highly experience wildlife rehabiltators, a well trained wildlife veterinarian, and numerous volunteers help make this happen.

If you've found an injured animal or think a wild animal has been abandoned by its mom (unlikely) give these folks a call. Note that many animals leave their babies alone for extended periods of time so please don't abduct the baby before calling these guys for advice!

Sorry about the experience that the upset poster had with their invasive starlings. State law prevents these non-native invasive species from being released and there is no facility in the state that would have done anything different other than euthanize them. Perhaps she should reflect on her own illegal keeping of the animals for days - these birds likely suffered at her hands and were finally euthanized at BRWC. They surely don’t use the method suggested by the angry poster. In addition to her criminal activity, she appears to have anger issues and a lying problem. Sad!

So wonderful that we have so many qualified and kindhearted people willing to help our local wildlife! I feel bad that they have to deal with angry uneducated folks like the...