INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — At the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue, there’s a whole gaggle of geese, ducks, reptiles and a couple of emus.
The rescue’s workers rehabilitate thousands of animals a year at its Union County campus. At any given time, they have hundreds on site.
It’s been a labor of love for Executive Director Jennifer Gordon, but the last month got as uncomfortable as it gets for this bird lover.
“Earlier this week, our bank account was overdrawn,” Gordon said, “so we’ve kind of been through our savings now at this point, and I think that’s when it got really scary.”
The rescue’s main sources of funding dried up. It’s gone from feast to famine almost overnight.
“Most of our donations come in off social media,” Gordon said. “We lost our Amazon Smile (funding), $30,000 a year. Just to give you an idea, it costs us $2,000 a day to run this facility.”
The rescue provides health care to animals like an abused duck that lost its bill to a firecracker. They also feed animals not yet ready to fly the coop. Workers need to get paid for their time on site and even for time on the road when an injured animal needs help.
Gordon worries her webbed-footed friends may have nowhere to go if the rescue closes.
“The fact that we would get to a point that we might have to consider euthanizing them has kept me awake at night this whole week,” Gordon said. “I have only slept a few hours.”
It’s been stressful on the entire crew, but the silver lining is the support they’re already getting from the community to keep the lights on at the rescue.
For those who would like to donate to the rescue, click here.
