Alabama Wildlife Center — Attraction in Pelham

I’m prefacing this with the fact that I actually like this place and what they do. I’m just incredibly frustrated with my experience this weekend trying to help some birds.

I found some baby robins in my backyard late afternoon on a Friday. We have 4 dogs and one of the birds got picked up and wasn’t looking so hot. The birds were almost fully feathered so they were in between being ready to be out on their own. We gave them several hours and the birds hadn’t moved an inch and were just in our backyard with no apparent parental attention. It started to rain so we did what we thought was best and followed a safe protocol in collecting and storing the birds to take up there Saturday morning.

We took the birds to the facility and were kind of met with a you should’ve just left them response. The kicker here is, my wife is a wildlife biologist and I’m a forester. We’ve both studied and worked with wildlife. We wouldn’t have touched the birds if we didn’t think this was an unwinnable situation for them.

I’d leave a 2.5 star review because they took the one bird that was struggling, but we were told to take the other bird back and try and put in the same spot in our backyard. We told them repeatably this could not be done due to dogs in our yard and all the yards near us. Despite us donating our time, gas, and a donation to the facility, we were told to bring one fledgling back to our house. Obviously we could not leave it in our fenced in yard so we moved the bird just outside of the backyard fence in some cover, hoping that it would be safe enough and close enough for parental care and last about a week for it to be ready. It was dead the next day.

I realize life and death happen everyday, and that they can’t help every bird in the greater Birmingham area, but this one had a shot, just not in our backyard. And it only needed about a week to get there. Surprisingly, the worse off bird had a better chance at living than...

I had rescued a Mississippi kite (thought it was a broad-tailes hawk) and took him to the AL Wildlife Center in Pelham. They are the professionals, after all! He was healthy and they can make sure he returns to the wild with no problems. I would've felt better turning him over if the young girl at the check-in desk had of been professional, but she seemed to know little, had purple hair (not a big deal), and a large hickey clearly visible on the right side of her neck. I did not feel confident with this person receiving a possibly injured animal. She asked/stated 3 times that she thought I was from some other veterinary clinic dropping off a bird. I had called 5 1/2 hours before I arrived, but was told that no one had "probably" checked the answering machine. A more professional person should be the initial point of contact. Not one other person came from "the back" to speak to me in regards to this raptor I did wander around and did speak with an office administrator. She was very nice and allayed my hesitation with the front desk person. Aside from the poor initial impression, the center is wonderful, clean, neat, interactive, and a fantastic place to view, learn about, and assist our wildlife. The center no longer accepts mammals. They are open every day! Volunteers are needed, donations are welcome. They are a non-profit. Once you see the fantastic center and realize all they do, you will want to give at least something! They also are in need of building materials. Please check their website to help. It's more than worthwile! Visiting is great for adults and magical for kids. The perfect type of learning field trip. I promise you will...

Unfortunately, my experience with Alabama Wildlife has been extremely disappointing. It seems like their main priority isn’t the animals, but the money. They present themselves as a nonprofit focused on animal rehabilitation, but behind the scenes, it’s clear they’re more concerned with controlling the space and receiving funding than truly helping wildlife. They make it incredibly difficult for new rehab facilities to emerge in Alabama, almost as if they don’t want anyone else stepping into the field—especially if it threatens their donations or public image. If this organization truly cared about protecting and saving animals, they would be supportive of others wanting to do the same work, not territorial and dismissive. It feels more like a monopoly disguised as a mission. I hope donors and the public begin to see through the curtain and ask harder questions about where the money really goes—and what the true motivation is behind...