Coronavirus Update: Walnut Creek's Lindsay Wildlife Raises Funds To Weather COVID-19
WALNUT CREEK (CBS SF) -- It will be over the next few weeks and months that Dr. Carlos de la Rosa will see how much his community values the Lindsay Wildlife Experience.
Less than a week into the nonprofit's "Love for Lindsay Wildlife" fundraising campaign, he's already heartened.
"The reputation of Lindsay, and the love people have for Lindsay, it's showing right now," said de la Rosa, executive director of the Walnut Creek-based museum and wildlife rehabilitation center. "We think people will respond because they know we do something of value for them."
The Lindsay Wildlife Experience rolled out the fundraising campaign to help the 65-year-old nonprofit sustain its hospital and education programs during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The goal is to raise $250,000 by June 30; the campaign has already gotten up to about $40,000, with contributions from Lindsay board members and from employees, volunteers, vendors, business partners and past volunteers and associates, de la Rosa said.
"We went from hundreds of visitors a day to zero all at once," he said.
The gift shop and some outreach programs that generated income also shut down, among the many victims of the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying shelter-in-place order that has grounded most "non-essential" businesses, museums, educational resources and other entities.
But the nonprofit's 74 "animal ambassadors" -- from Atsa the bald eagle and Dandelion the desert tortoise to various birds, small mammals, lizards and spiders -- are there, and must be cared for.
And Lindsay's function as the United States' first animal rehabilitation hospital continues largely as it did before March 13, when the museum-wildlife hospital-research facility closed to the public. Most of its employees now work from home.
But the wildlife hospital remains open, with two four-person crews covering shifts. Dr. Krystal Woo, Lindsay's lead wildlife veterinarian, said the two crews purposely avoid overlapping, to maintain social distancing.
The caseloads vary significantly day to day, Woo said. On a recent rainy Sunday, the hospital had only three "intakes;" on Wednesday, by 3 p.m., the Lindsay hospital had more than 20.
Animals get hit by cars, attacked by other animals wild or domestic, fly into windows or other obstacles or come down with illnesses.
They're usually brought in by good-hearted people who either know to go there, or are advised to.
Lindsay's medical staff treats some 5,600 native wild animals each year. Though the patient load has been similar pre- and post-coronavirus, Woo said other aspects of working in the hospital have changed.
It's certainly harder to get masks, gowns and certain other medical supplies, she said. And now that volunteers cannot come to the Lindsay to help the veterinarians, "it's very strange not seeing them there every day," Woo said. "It's been very quiet, We miss their help."
According to de la Rosa, the wildlife hospital's caseload has remained steady since March 13, but he expects things will get busier soon.
"We're entering the high season for animal babies, when baby birds fall out of nests, when animals get hit by cars. That's when the most people bring in animals for treatment," he said.
The coronavirus-related slowdowns, de la Rosa said, will allow him and other Lindsay officials to rethink how they offer services in the future.
One change already planned is to make its educational publication "Wildlife Wonders," heretofore quarterly and on paper, weekly and online.
Both Woo and de la Rosa say they're optimistic about Lindsay's future, and that the coronavirus pandemic will provide challenges and opportunities.
"I think we will come out ahead by taking the time to develop more of an online presence," said de la Rosa, who before coming to Lindsay in June 2019 was director of the La Selva Biological Station for the Organization of Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. "It's really about taking all these lemons and making them into a big pot of lemonade."
More information about Lindsay, including how to donate, can be found at the Lindsey Wildlife Experience website.
