Gathering Raises Funds for Wildlife-Care Center

About 60 people attended a “baby shower” Saturday at Malibu Creek State Park to raise funds for the care of young wildlife.

“We thought it would attract people and remind them baby wildlife need help too,” said Rebecca Dmytryk, founder and president of the California Wildlife Center. “We’re trying to replenish baby animal supplies.”

The center’s three staff members and about 30 volunteers go into the wild to treat injured animals or bring them back to the center for care.

The center rescues only animals native to the Santa Monica Mountains.

Dmytryk said animals are now giving birth, making it the busiest time of the season for the center because there are more injured or orphaned baby animals. She said the center especially needs heating pads, incubators, rodent chow, trout chow for sea birds, baby bottle warmers, towels and bedsheets.

To call attention to the animals’ plight, there were were T-shirts featuring various paw prints and drawings and paintings of wildlife.

“People don’t realize there’s an incredible array of wildlife,” said center volunteer Carol Black, 41, who participated in the event with her two daughters.

Ginny Matthews of Malibu said she once brought an injured baby hawk to the wildlife center.

“It’s needed here in the mountains where everyone lives in such close contact with wildlife,” Matthews said.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation provided three acres of parkland to the center’s founders last year. Wildlife center workers converted an old home on the property into offices and a wildlife hospital. The nonprofit center opened in April and is in operation 24 hours.

For more information, call the wildlife center at (310) 457-9453.