The PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center takes care of sick, injured and Orphaned wild animals. PAWS receives approximately 4,500 wild animals each year. The center has cared for more than 170 different Species including: bears, coyotes, raccoons, seals, eagles, bobcats, robins, sparrows, squirrels and gulls, just to name a few. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center cares for wild animals and prepares them for release back into the wild.

The center is located in Lynnwood, Washington. The facility includes a veterinary examination room, surgery room, X-ray room, a ward, a nursery for baby birds and a nursery for baby mammals. There are outdoor cages for large animals like bears, deer, coyotes, hawks and owls, and cages for small animals like squirrels, raccoons and robins. There are also pools for animals that are more comfortable in the water, like seals, otters and seabirds.

The PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is staffed by wildlife rehabilitation experts. Some of these people are:

• Rehabilitators – perform exams and coordinate the care and feeding of the animals during their stay
• Veterinarian – performs surgeries, X-rays, examinations and gives medical instructions to the rehabilitators
• Naturalist – plans the release of animals when they are healed and helps educate people on how to live peacefully with wildlife

During the busy summer months, as many as 200 volunteers work in the center feeding the animals, cleaning their cages and helping with wildlife releases. Many of the animals that come to the center in the summer are babies. Some baby birds need to be fed every fifteen minutes!

Because people continue to build houses, roads and shopping centers on land that was Habitat for many different animals, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is often filled to capacity. Each year PAWS also helps thousands of people learn to live peacefully with their wild neighbors, which helps reduce the number of injured and orphaned animals needing care.