HSVMA Service Learning Opportunities 

The Humane Society of the United States operates five direct care centers throughout the U.S. These centers provide rescue, rehabilitation and sanctuary to thousands of animals each year. Volunteer opportunities are available for HSVMA veterinary professionals and students at all of the centers. Learn behind-the-scenes operations of a direct care facility and gain exposure to exotic animal care and wildlife rehabilitation while making lives better for the animals in our care.  For more information contact the centers directly.

Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch

Though its residents include a camel, a kangaroo, ostriches, and chimpanzees, the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas, isn’t a zoo. Operated in partnership with The Fund for Animals, the ranch is a place of refuge where abused, neglected, or unwanted animals live in peace without the stress of daily visitors, because---in the words of founder Cleveland Amory---“animals are to be looked after, not looked at.”

Created in 1979 as a sanctuary for 577 Grand Canyon National Park burros slated to be shot, the ranch is now home to more than 1,300 animals. Iguanas, ostriches, bobcats, bison, cows, and pigs are among the many wild, exotic, and domestic species that have found safe harbor at Black Beauty. In 2009, the ranch also became the site of the Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center, where cutting-edge methods of care and rehabilitation are used to help rescued horses find forever homes.

Fund for Animals Wildlife Center

In the high desert town of Ramona, Calif., the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center---operated by The HSUS in partnership with The Fund Animals---is always open for business. No matter the hour, center staff offer immediate help to injured or orphaned wild creatures, rehabilitating about 400 animals every year. Coyotes, bobcats, cougars, hawks, owls, and eagles are the most frequent patients, receiving expert care until they can be returned to their natural habitats.

Nearly 50 animals rescued from the exotic pet trade and cruelty cases have also found permanent homes at the center. Samson the lion, Hannah the pygmy hippo, and Sheeba the cougar once suffered in the hands of private owners. At the center, they’re given appropriate care and treated like the wild animals they should be.

Contact: Cindy Traisi
             18740 Highland Valley Road
             Ramona, CA  92065
             (760) 789-2324

Duchess Sanctuary

The 1,120-acre Duchess Sanctuary south of Eugene, Oregon, was established in 2008 as a safe haven for 200 abused or abandoned horses. The first residents were mares and their offspring saved from Canadian farms that collect urine from pregnant horses to sell to pharmaceutical companies for estrogen replacement drugs. Many of the elderly mares had spent six months of the year for decades confined in dark stalls, hooked up to urine collection devices and unable to turn around. Their foals were taken away at 3 months of age, some destined to join the urine-production line, and others sent to slaughter.

At the Duchess Sanctuary, these animals have left misery behind and now spend their days grazing, napping, and running across green pastures, joined by rescued wild mustangs and horses saved from slaughter. Native wildlife shares the habitat, including California quail, turkey, coyote, black bear, black tail deer, and rare Columbian white tail deer.

Contact: Heidi Hopkins
             18379 Elkhead Road
             Oakland, Oregon 97462
             (541) 459-9914

Cape Wildlife Center

Since 1995, the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Mass., has provided care 365 days a year for the area’s unique wildlife community. Veterinarians, licensed wildlife rehabilitators, volunteers, and student externs work to heal their patients and restore them to the wild. In 2007--2008, the center cared for 3,552 animals and up to 135 species---from bats to bobcats, foxes to fishers, otters to owls, raccoons to rabbits. The center is located along an important migratory route, and songbirds, raptors, waterfowl, and other feathered species make up more than half of each year’s intake numbers.

Operated in partnership with The Fund for Animals, the Cape Wildlife Center is an integral part of the community, advising people on humane solutions to human-wildlife conflicts---while pushing for public policies that benefit wild animals and their habitats. The center’s outstanding externship program draws undergraduate, veterinary, and veterinary technician students from across the U.S. and abroad.

Contact: Debbie Richmond
             4011 Main Street
             Cummaquid, MA  02637
             (508) 362-0111

SPCA Wildlife Care Center

You’re as likely to see an alligator as a squirrel at the SPCA Wildlife Care Center in Broward County, Fla. The Fort Lauderdale facility rescues up to 14,000 animals a year, most of whom are native species, such as alligators, egrets, opossums, pelicans, turtles, and otters. Sixty staff members and 600 volunteers rescue and rehabilitate injured, abused, and orphaned creatures until they can be returned to the wild.

The center also takes in several thousand exotic animals each year---including pet pythons let loose in swamps and parrots who have escaped captivity. While some exotics can survive in Florida’s climate, they can threaten indigenous species. For these victims of the exotic pet trade, the center provides shelter and adoption services, finding good homes for animals who would otherwise have nowhere to go.

Contact: Amy  Loebl
             3200 SW 4th Avenue
             Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33315
             (954) 343-0761

                                               Photos courtesy of ©Chad Sisneros/HSUS, Ray Eubanks, Jenn Kunz/HSUS,Heather Fone