Rescuing Ocala Wildlife - ROW

08/29/2025

Nobody tells time better than hungry babies! Breakfast is 14 minutes late! 🙊😨

08/27/2025

We’re excited to announce that we are participating in for the third year in a row!

On September 16–17, our community will come together for 33 hours of generosity to support local nonprofits. This year, ROW's goal is to raise $10,000 to expand our brand-new wildlife hospital, and support our rehabilitation efforts for native wildlife in need!

Why give? Florida’s rapid growth means more sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife than ever before. With your support, we can provide the medical care, rehabilitation enclosures, and life-saving rescues these animals desperately need.

Mark your calendar, share this post, and on Sept. 16–17 head to https://www.give4marion.org/organizations/rescuing-ocala-wildlife to support ROW. Together, we can give wild animals the second chance they deserve!

Community Foundation Ocala Marion County

08/25/2025

Hoo can find the owl in this photo? This is one of our many wild residents that have been here since we bought the place! We call her Alice.

08/25/2025

Update—transport found! Thank you Amanda and Nicole!

Urgent transport needed for an owl that was found and left on the side of the road in a ditch. At the 4 way stop at 316 & NW Gainesville Road. I don’t have any other information and original finder is not willing to help. Our vet in Reddick will take it at no cost. Please text if you can help 352-234-6098

08/25/2025

Update on our new gopher tortoise rehab pens! We finished sloping and pouring the concrete, then back-filled it by 3ft so the tortoises can dig all they want without escaping. We are adding their pools, tunnels, and hides today and hope to have them operational very soon!

We are hoping to find a local business who would donate a pallet of sod to us, as well as some native plants to add shade and natural forage. If you’re a local business owner and would like to contribute to the completion of this project with a tax-deductible in-kind donation, please reach out to us at 352-234-6098. Please tag your friends!

08/23/2025

(Graphic photo warning)

We would like to give a massive thank you to Chi Animal Hospital and Dr. Monroe and Dr. Colleran for providing anesthesia, sutures, and post-op medications to one of our baby opossums, Crouton! He sustained a deep wound from a bite and needed immediate care. Thankfully, we were able to rush him to the vet and they treated him right away—at no cost! We are deeply grateful to everyone at Chi for their ongoing support of saving wild lives. Crouton is doing very well now and is enjoying having a whole cage (and food bowl) to himself while he heals ❤️

08/22/2025

Good morning from Miss Mango! Mango is one of our box turtle education ambassadors. Her favorite thing to do is soak in their pool. She is missing a leg after being attacked by a dog but has a permanent home with us. 

08/18/2025

Great info!

🚨 What to Do If You See Someone Abusing Wildlife 🐾

We have had a few animal abuse cases admitted to the hospital recently. Unfortunately, law enforcement was not able to do anything because they did not have enough evidence. Wild animals deserve respect and protection. If you witness someone hurting, harassing, or illegally keeping wildlife, don’t confront them directly — instead, take action safely and responsibly:

📸 Document what you see – If it's safe to do so, take photos or videos and note the location, date, time, and a description of the incident.

📞 Report it – In Florida, you can call the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922). You can also text or email [email protected].

🛑 Never attempt to rehabilitate wildlife yourself – Injured or stressed animals can be dangerous. If it is safe to do so, you can transport an injured animal to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or if you are unsure what to do contact a licensed wildlife rehabber for help.

By speaking up, you can help protect wild animals from harm and ensure that those who mistreat them are held accountable. 💚

08/18/2025

Apparently I need to post this again. Rescuing Ocala Wildlife (ROW) is 100% volunteer-run. Meaning we don’t have staff. No one works for us. We have about 20 on-site animal care volunteers who are all phenomenal and do not claim to be rehabbers, or say they are permitted, or fosters, or anything else other than a volunteer.

It may seem like semantics, but there are still several people out there claiming to work for ROW, and using our name and reputation to illegally take animals from the public. This has been going on for several months but with baby season ramping up to its second half, these people are at it again.

The ONLY way to get a hold of us is our rescue line at 352-234-6098. If you are referred to another rehab, vet clinic, transport volunteer, etc, it will be from that number. Not a Facebook message from a personal account or a comment on a post.

Anyone can change their Facebook bio to say “works/volunteers at Rescuing Ocala Wildlife”, just like anything else fake on the internet. Fish and Wildlife has been made aware of this but we have yet to get enough information for them to be able to do much. If you’re contacted by someone claiming to be affiliated with ROW please take a screenshot and reach out.

08/13/2025

We have officially broken ground on our brand new Gopher Tortoise rehab enclosures! We will have two 10x20 pens that share a removable wall. Each will have an in-ground pool with beach entry, a “house” with a heater for winter, lots of native plants and natural forage, manmade burrows for the tortoises who cannot dig, and of course, several feet of dirt for optional burrowing. Tortoise season is upon us, and we hope to get these done very soon!