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Our Facility

Over the last 10 years, our dedicated PROWLS volunteers have come together to construct a small but impressive indoor/outdoor facility at Merrilee Prior’s tiny home in Townsite.

Despite our current spacial challenges, PROWLS boasts an organized ICU, flight cages, a dedicated freezer for diet items, and a laundry area that doubles as an additional kitchen area, and multiple storage for cages, kennels, and medical supplies.


Please note that PROWLS is unable to offer open houses or tours of our facility. Our wild patients are protected by law during their rehabilitation, and visitors would only add to their stress.


Check our Facebook page for the latest on all our patients >

Read our Rescue of the Week column to learn all about the local wild animals in our care >

Learn about our future plans for a new facility, including a Visitor’s Centre >

Catch a glimpse of our workspace!


Large light cage under construction
Our large flight cage

PROWLS volunteers work together to build our large flight cage.

Large light cage under construction
Our large flight cage

PROWLS volunteers work together to build our large flight cage.

Large light cage under construction
Medium flight cage

Our medium flight cage just after construction.

Medium flight cage
Medium flight cage

Our patients keep each other company as they rehabilitate in our medium flight cage and prepare themselves for release.

Wildlife rescue nests
Wildlife rescue nests

This young robin has a pretty lovely set up in his colourful and warm crocheted nest, made for us by the amazing folks at Wildlife Rescue Nests.

Swan awaiting transfer
Swan awaiting transfer

This swan is awaiting transfer to a better equipped facility.

Fox sparrow diet
Fox sparrow diet

After hitting a window, this concussed fox sparrow required a course of antibiotics and anti-parasitics, along with time to recover.

Large light cage under construction
Large light cage under construction
Large light cage under construction
Medium flight cage
Wildlife rescue nests
Swan awaiting transfer
Fox sparrow diet
Our large flight cage

PROWLS volunteers work together to build our large flight cage.

Our large flight cage

PROWLS volunteers work together to build our large flight cage.

Medium flight cage

Our medium flight cage just after construction.

Medium flight cage

Our patients keep each other company as they rehabilitate in our medium flight cage and prepare themselves for release.

Wildlife rescue nests

This young robin has a pretty lovely set up in his colourful and warm crocheted nest, made for us by the amazing folks at Wildlife Rescue Nests.

Swan awaiting transfer

This swan is awaiting transfer to a better equipped facility.

Fox sparrow diet

After hitting a window, this concussed fox sparrow required a course of antibiotics and anti-parasitics, along with time to recover.

We need a new facility!

Many of our larger local patients have to be transferred, rehabilitated and released elsewhere in BC due to the limitations of our tiny space. The only mammals that are returned to Powell River are the bear cubs and bobcat kits.

PROWLS has the expertise to locally rehabilitate many more species, and we are actively fundraising for land to construct a proper facility. This will allow us to expand our capacity for patients, volunteers and interns.


A proper facility for PROWLS would permit us to become a sustainable community organization in the long term, as well as expand our capacity in terms of:

… the number of patients we can care for in-house;

… the diversity of species we are able to rehabilitate and release locally;

… the number of volunteers and youth interns we can accommodate and train; and

… the learning opportunities we can offer to local schools and groups in our community.


Thankfully, the wildlife rehab community is always ready to help: water birds go to MARS in Courtenay, raptors go to OWL in Delta and mammals go to Critter Care in Langley.

This still leaves more than 400 song birds to be treated here, and in the 2021 season we expect to see even more as Gibsons Wildlife Rescue is unable to continue operating.

“It can be quite amusing to walk into the house in midsummer to find 20 plus babies on the kitchen table, another 20 adults in ICU and flight cages everywhere filled with birds almost ready for release. The joke is that I have a bedroom in a wildlife hospital, shared bath and kitchen. That is not far off, especially from April-September.”

~ Merrilee Prior, PROWLS President


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