New England Wildlife Centers

Welcome to New England Wildlife Center

Healing Happens Here

Wildlife Medicine

From hummingbirds to snapping turtles. 225 species cared for. All patients returned back to Freedom.

Odd Pet Vet

Caring for your Scaled, Feathered, and furred friends. Appointments available 7 days a week. Boarding available from $15/day.

Call 781-682-4878 to schedule an appointment

Education and Mentoring

Free choice learning by doing. All learning styles welcome.

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Community

The South Shore's Community Hub. Join us for: Saturday Night open Mic, Birthday Parties, Guided Tours

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Welcome to New England Wildlife Centers!

So glad you stopped by, NEWCS is where people and animals thrive.

We run two non-profit wildlife veterinary hospitals and education centers located in Barnstable and Weymouth, Massachusetts. Together we work to provide veterinary and rehabilitative care to the sick, injured, and orphaned wild animals. In the process of caring for these patients we work to educate members of the public and spread the message of environmental conservation. Each day we work to preserve the rich natural history of Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the islands, one animal – and one person at a time.

Follow Our Wild Patients!

thecapewildlifecenter

Cape Cod Branch of New England Wildlife Centers. Helping People and animals 🙂🦉

Test Wash 🫧🎵 We recoeved 37 seagulls covere

This fry-day evening we received another 14 herrin

We are posting at the end of a long greasy night🍟🪿

At 8:00 pm this evening our hospital received 24 oiled gulls, who reportedly found their way into a truck carrying used cooking oil. They had apparently been attracted to the smell of fried foods and had landed in the back of the truck where the viscous oil soaked through their feathers. The Grafton animal control officer was able to catch the majority of the birds who had all been rendered flightless by the oil. Their conditions range from mildly oiled to critical condition and unfortunately several had severe injuries and did not make it.

Our goal for this evening is to assess and stabilize the gulls. The washing process will start in the next few days once they have had a chance to de-stress and eat a good meal. Washing an oiled bird is an extremely labor intensive process and It can take up to an hour to wash each bird!

We were very thankful that we had our oil spill response kits on hand and we’re able to help, and grateful to the officer who was able to capture these birds and make the trip this late.

We will follow up tomorrow with an update on their condition. Tonight we are ready to sleep and wash off the smell of french fries

If you would like to make a donation to help us provide care for these birds please follow the link in our bio. Thank you!

Missing the summer days but happy many of these ba

An Egret with some regrets… This Great Egret wa $An Egret with some regrets… This Great Egret was brought to our hospital after it was found down on the ground unable to fly. On exam our hospital staff found him to be very off balanced with a quiet mentation. We believe he may have crash landed and suffered head trauma. Fortunately there were no other injuries of fractures seen on x-rays. Our veterinary team provided supportive fluids and some anti-inflammatories to help reduce any possible brain swelling. By the end of the day he was standing so was moved to an outdoor enclosure to be able to stretch his legs to avoid the chances of developing capture myopathy. Long legged wading birds are very prone to getting capture myopathy which is a condition that causes muscle tissue death as a result of exertion, struggle, or stress during the capture, transport, or even treatment process while the bird is restrained. The destruction of the muscle tissue causes physiological acid/ base changes in tissue and blood that can result in death. Treatment with fluids and vitamin supplements is not always successful so minimizing occurrence through low stress handling techniques and minimizing restraint time is key. We are pleased to say that by the next day we found the egret flying around the enclosure looking for an escape. We happily obliged and sent him on his way to hopefully continue living life with no more egrets 😉 #greategret #greategretsofinstagram #birdsofinstagram #wadingbirds #wildlifemedicine #wildliferescue #freebird$

Some of the many patients receiving care at our ho

Our orphaned raccoons are finally ready to be rele

Our orphaned raccoons are almost ready for release

This Common Loon is off the hook today, after a re

Someone’s feeling much better!! 🐢 on track fo

Instagram post 17962132286622107

Finally Free! 🦅 After four long months in the

This young Bald Eagle has made incredible progress

Im-Possum-ly Adorable ❤️ We try not to play f $Im-Possum-ly Adorable ❤️ We try not to play favorites, but sometimes we can’t help it…especially with a face as adorable as this. We suspect this handsome fellow was sadly struck by a car last night as he was found lying on the side of the road. Harwich animal control rushed him to our cape hospital where our veterinary staff worked quickly to evaluate and stabilize him. Bleeding from his face and ear lead us to believe he had suffered most of the impact to his head and radiographs confirmed he did sustain a skull fracture to the left side. It’s difficult to tell how much permanent brain damage he might have as his mentation is currently dull but we are hopefully it’s only transient and we have started meds to to reduce inflammation and control pain. Please send healing thoughts his way during this critical time ❤️ #opossumsofinstagram #virginiaopossum #masupialsofinstagram #wildlife #wildlifemedicine #wildliferehab #playingpossum #capecodwildlife$

Tom Selick? Einstein? No it’s a North American

Bobbing for apples 🍎 Our orphaned raccoons are

This Great Horned Owl couldn’t Bend it like Beck $This Great Horned Owl couldn’t Bend it like Beckham ⚽️🥅 She presented to our Cape Hospital after getting herself severely tangled in a soccer net, most likely trying to go after some prey. She was not happy about this predicament and was uncooperative when Barnstable Natural Resource officers tried to untangle her. They decided for the safety of the bird it was best to just cut the net around her and transport her over to us for assistance with removing the remaining netting. Our veterinary staff was able to quickly cut her free of the netting that was wrapped around her wings and legs. Fortunately we did not see wounds or fractures so we don’t think she had be stuck for long. After a full vet exam and some rehydration fluids we left her to de-stress in an outdoor cage where we could continue to monitor for any signs of injury and later that day Natural Resource officers were able to release her back to bc the wild. Hopefully she’ll think twice about where she tries to score her next meal from 🦉⚽️ #benditlikebekham #soccer #owlsofinstagram #tangled #wildliferehab #quickthinking #angrybirds #capecodwildlife #soccerfoulshappen$

This purple martin fledgling received our express $This purple martin fledgling received our express treatment yesterday when he was found by our friends over at @massaudubon Long Pasture covered in a malodorous sticky substance. Upon admission our veterinary staff noticed how matted and clumped his feathers were. The amount of feather contamination is very dangerous for birds as it inhibits their ability to fly and thermoregulate. This species is usually very stressy in rehab so getting him back out ASAP was top priority. After ruling out the presence of any wounds or fractures the staff quickly prepared a dawn bubble bath to carefully remove all the sticky material. The whole process took no longer than 5 minutes as it is very important to work swiftly and diligently to not stress the bird for too long of a period. After a rinse we left him to dry off in an incubator and before long he was looking like an entirely new bird and flitting around his cage eager to go. MA Audubon was able to return him to an active nest with other fledglings where they will continue to monitor him. We are so relieved about the positive outcome as purple martin populations are declining at a rate of 0.5% a year. They are known to breed on Cape and in the northeast and migrate down to South America in the winters. #purplemartin #songbirds #songbirdsofinstagram #dawnsoap #wildlife #wildliferehab #quickfix$

Bird hair, Don’t Care 💁‍♀️🦅 This os

It’s a big day here in NEWCS Raccoon Nation. The

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New England Wildlife Centers

Welcome to New England Wildlife Centers!So glad you stopped by, NEWCS is where people and animals thrive.

Follow Our Wild Patients!

thecapewildlifecenter

Welcome to New England Wildlife Centers!

So glad you stopped by, NEWCS is where people and animals thrive.