Wildlife center in Quezon City nearing full capacity

• Source: https://businessmirror.com.ph/wildlife-center-in-quezon-city-nearing-full-capacity/
• Friday, January 12, 2018

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

THE National Wildlife Rescue and Research Center (NWRRC) will push for the establishment of more wildlife rescue centers, as the facility inside the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center (NAPWC) may soon run out of space for rescued wildlife.

Glenn Maguad, officer in charge of the NWRRC, said around 1,400 rescued, confiscated and voluntarily turned over animals are now housed in the facility. It is manned by three veterinarians, including Maguad, and 20 animal keepers, who feed them every day.

The NWRRC is not a typical government facility where employees report for work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., as those assigned as veterinarians or keepers are on-call 24/7.

“We also have no holidays. We usually have extra shirts in our cabinets because you will never know when authorities will bring in rescued or confiscated animals. Sometimes, we are only informed one hour before they turn over some animals,” he said.

Without adequate facility to serve as temporary shelter of rescued or confiscated animals, treatment of injured animals, quarantine and rehabilitation will be big challenge.

The facility at the NAPWC used to be a mini zoo and depository of rescued animals until it was converted into a quarantine, rehabilitation and research facility in 2011.

Most of the cages at the NWRRC came from donors, he said.

“Under the Wildlife Resources Protection and Conservation Act, there should be at least one center for every region,” he added. The provision of the law requiring the establishment of such facility did not materialized until today.

Under such provision, it means that there should be at least 16 similar facility in every region to accommodate rescued, confiscated or voluntarily turned-over wildlife.

Each wildlife rescue center, he said, should have at least one veterinarian and several animal keepers to ensure that those housed in the facility are well taken cared of. It requires at least P100,000 a year to feed the animals sheltered at the NWRRC.

Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim of the Biodiversity Management Bureau in earlier interviews said she is open to the idea of a public-private partnership to establish wildlife rescue centers in partnership with local government units and non-governmental organizations.