Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was founded in 2016 by longtime animal advocate Stephanie Brady. The rescue center covers over 25,000 square miles, and 26 counties.
“When I started this out, I was doing a rescue out of my own home,” Founder, Stephanie Brady said. “I’ve worked with animals since I was 15, when I moved from the DFW area to Amarillo I saw around 200 animals a year at my home. After relocating to Amarillo, I notified Texas Parks and Wildlife to let them know because I had permits for rehabilitation for rescue animals.”
Within five months of moving to Amarillo and beginning her work, Brady saw 200+ animals, with the following year hitting over 700 animals.
“I quickly realized I was going to need a center,” Brady said. “I knew I would need a bigger space because I had kids of my own and I couldn’t take care of that amount of animals. I also couldn’t give that many animals the quality of care they deserved.”
Brady, for many years, was an emergency med veterinarian assistant in Dallas. The WWWRC (Wild West Wildlife Rescue Center) sees roughly 3,200 animals a year. The center works alongside the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service, and the center’s 30 volunteers. The center has two full-time employees, one, of course, being Brady.
“I could not do this alone,” Brady said. “It takes a team, my entire team is needed to get the job done.”
The WWWRC made its presence known in Pampa over the past week. With the hail storms Pampa has seen, the cosmetic damage has been large, but animals have taken a hit as well. After the first hail storm, there were animals all over town either killed or severely injured. After hearing about the issue, Brady stepped into action.
“I made a post saying how to get those animals the care they needed,” Brady said. “Jeannie with the Pampa Animal Shelter volunteered her time to take in those animals, and the Reyes family drove them over to us. Within the first 24 hours, we’d already taken in 48 animals.”
The process is just bringing an animal into the center. Either the transport team goes out to retrieve the animal(s) or they are brought in. The center has to fill out forms that document what comes and goes within WWWRC for the Texas Parks and Wildlife. Once the animals are taken in, one of the two on-site veterinarians sees the animal. The center has Dr. Wolf and Dr. McKnight on site for all animals from Canyon Road Animal Hospital. If the animal can be rehabilitated, once back to health, it will be safely released back into protected land in the county the animal was from. Of course, if the animal isn’t viable for rehab, the center has to make the hard decision of euthanizing those animals.
Brady saw the tragedy in Pampa and quickly contacted the Pampa PD and Pampa Animal Shelter to get the ball rolling.
“We’ve seen another event like this before in Amarillo after a hail storm,” Brady said. “We weren’t sure what it would look like from Pampa so we immediately got started on getting a plan in motion. We agreed to tell residents where to take the animals and then we would get them transported to our center.”
The WWWRC is the only center that is permitted at the federal and state level, making Brady’s center the only place near for animal rehabilitation.
“This is my calling in life,” Brady said. “It’s the thing we’re supposed to do as Christians is to take care of all of God’s creatures.”
The center will continue to do their work for Pampa as the animals are found from the storms. At the same time, the center has been taking in animals on their own. Amarillo has had its own share of tragedy strikes. The flooding in Amarillo has posed a huge threat to businesses and families, along with animals. Brady and her team have been rescuing and saving animals as they are called in.
“Last week, I got called out to Lawrence Lake to a huge flood,” Brady said. “There were two skunks who were drowning in the flood. We got several calls to get out, and it was more dire than I originally thought. I raced out there and immediately saw one drowning. We were able to rescue both skunks, also while out there we located a kitten stranded on a limb floating on the water. What was called in for two skunks, ended up with us rescuing nine animals.”
The work is never over for Brady or her team. The center is a non-profit, donation-based center so public support is crucial to what they do.
“We don’t receive any funding,” Brady said. “We do this on donations to the center or our own money. But it’s what we feel called to do.”
Donations can be made to the center’s website wildwestwildlife.com or by visiting them at 2901 N. Soncy Road in Amarillo. To call for more information, the center can be reached at (806)680-2483.
