Local wildlife center took in 451 animals from Costa Mesa last year, got no city funding
Costa Mesa resident Sue Lester began volunteering with Huntington Beach’s Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center two years ago, after a brief stint working with dogs at a local rescue organization became too much to bear.
“I wanted to adopt everybody, which wasn’t an option for me. And when they did get adopted it was heartbreaking,” she recalled Thursday. “It was too much, so I decided I couldn’t volunteer there.”
Once at the care center, Lester underwent training to learn state and federal fish and wildlife protocol and how to care for the thousands of wounded, sick or abandoned animals that would come in each year so they could be rehabilitated and eventually released.
It was a much better fit for her, because there was no room for attachment, and the animals, once returned to their habitats, enriched local ecosystems. And so she happily nursed baby birds and watched over raccoons, opossums and squirrels.
Lester was there when staff members were tasked with removing a small arrow from the neck of a mallard spotted in Newport Beach and later captured at an elementary school in Costa Mesa. Veterinarians performed two surgeries and took X-rays for the police.
She recalled how, several months earlier, the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center performed similar triage when several waterfowl were found shot at Costa Mesa’s TeWinkle Park.
“The veterinarian showed me the (X-ray) films and the ammunition that was in these ducks, and the vet was getting ready to extract it for [crime scene investigators],” she said.
Last year, the nonprofit care center took in 451 animals brought in by residents, animal control officers and others from Costa Mesa — a number third only to Orange County Animal Control, which serves numerous cities under contracts, and Huntington Beach, where the center is located, according to Executive Director Debbie McGuire.
Yet, while many cities pay for the services Wetlands & Wildlife Center provides, either through a flat rate or per animal, the city of Costa Mesa is among a handful of municipalities that pay nothing.
“I call them the holdouts,” McGuire said Wednesday. “I’ve been talking with some of them, and they’ve been looking into it. [But] to go to each city council is hard.”
Lester said she was unhappy to learn her own city was a holdout.
“At first I was shocked,” she said. “Then it made me sad, and I was kind of embarrassed. Then it made me mad.”
She filed a public records request and learned Costa Mesa contracts with two outside entities for veterinary services as well as sheltering and adoption.
Newport Center Animal Hospital receives $240,000 annually to treat found animals, but cannot admit or treat most wildlife. The nonprofit Priceless Pets Rescue takes in domestic animals seen by the vet, at a rate of $25 per animal, and reunites them with their owners or finds new homes through adoption events, Costa Mesa city spokesman Tony Dodero confirmed Thursday.
But large birds, waterfowl and other wild animals must be taken to outside organizations like WWCC, which have no formal agreement with the city.
Lester believes this should change. She appeared Tuesday before the Costa Mesa City Council to plead her case.
“You give Priceless Pets $25 per animal. If you gave us that much, we’d have $10,875. You pay $240,000 to a vet who’s not licensed to take wildlife. If you would have paid us that same rate, we’d have gotten $122,823 from you last year,” she said in a public comment.
“We get a lot of animals from Costa Mesa, so I’m here tonight to ask Costa Mesa to do its part and start contributing to the Wildlife Care Center,” she continued. “We really need your support.”
Mayor John Stephens later commented on the issue during council member comments.
“I don’t know why it is that we don’t provide compensation for the services we receive,” he said. “I’m sure staff will look into that and rectify that.”
Dodero confirmed Wednesday that City Hall personnel were in the process of reviewing the matter.
McGuire said although the center typically treats about 6,000 animals each year from throughout Orange County and a small portion of Los Angeles County, about 7,000 arrived for intake in 2022. And while some animals require expensive treatment and procedures, the average cost of care is $125.
The mallard that came to the center on March 26 with an arrow in its neck required multiple X-rays, two surgeries and a series of blood tests, which McGuire said will cost well over $1,000.
Newport Beach police are investigating the incident, because officers from that city’s department initially spotted the duck the day before it was located and retrieved from Costa Mesa.
Although Newport Beach has a longstanding agreement with the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center at $10 per animal, because the duck was brought in from Costa Mesa, the center will get nothing.
“I’m not going to get the $10, because [Newport Beach] is not the one who brought it in,” McGuire said. “We work hard to get funded — that’s why we’re begging people all the time on social media.”
Through Facebook posts on the mallard, his injury and recovery updates, the center raised $1,200, which will help cover some of the bird’s treatment. McGuire said while the center’s annual operating budget this year is $700,000, the group raised $120,000 in the first quarter.
Lester said fighting for more funds is an uphill battle but a worthy one.
“I love what I’m doing, but we need support from the cities we’re serving,” she said. “I’m hopeful Costa Mesa will do the right thing.”
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