<div>Mally’s Third Chance Raccoon Rescue is Ontario’s largest raccoon rehabilitation centre, providing care for up to 150 raccoons at any given time. They work tirelessly round the clock, 7 days per week, 365 days per year (including holidays) to provide humane care and medical treatment to Ontario’s Raccoon population. 
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<div>On September 26th, during, what can only be described as, a military-style raid, Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF)'s Enforcement Branch seized 87 live animals in our care! Our healthy, fully vaccinated jeuvenile raccoons were hunted down in their enclosures. They were stalked and ruthlessly chased like prey within, what was supposed to be, the safety of their home. Many were just days away from being released. As they were corralled and callously captured with snare poles and nets, we could clearly hear their terrified screams and desperate cries for help coming from their enclosures located at the back of our property. We felt powerless as we were not permitted to help or comfort them during this traumatic attack.
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<div>Our acute patient raccoons in our Isolation Rooms and within our Care Clinic (which were all at different stages of treatment and/or recovery), were aggressively pulled from their medical care cages, without any compassion or consideration of their condition(s). Many of these raccoons were large adults who failed to fit into the disproportionately sized traps the MNRF used for this unprecedented seizure, and were forcefully jammed in with their hands, feet and noses being tightly pressed against or forced out through the caging. Many were rendered completely immobilized by this act, having to urinate/deficate on themselves and unable to maneuver their bodies into an upright or comfortable position, thus affecting their ability to adequately breathe due to the excessive pressure on their bodies, compressing their lungs. Consequently, we witnessed one of our big male raccoons having severe dyspnea (breathing difficulty), he appeared to be suffocating under his own weight, a medical emergency consciously ignored by handlers, despite our demands and cries. We don't know if he survived this deliberate mishandling, we can only hold hope that he did. 
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<div>Helpless, the animals sat there, in these deplorable restrictive conditions, in their own urine and feces, for countless hours, they were not offered food or water for the duration of the 8 hour raid (and who knows how long after). Hastily and thoughtlessly crammed into the backs of open pickup trucks. The handlers joked and snickered as they loaded the traps vertically, despite their prohibitive positions and without any regard to the raccoons' health; ability to breathe freely, circulate blood, ambulate or regulate their body temperature, which was especially concerning for the those in the middle. 
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<div>Still emblazoned in our minds are not only the visuals we bore witness to, but hearing all our raccoon babies and patients, screaming in fear and crying in pain and discomfort! Then as they began to drive away, you could see in their eyes, the panic and hear in their cries, the fear and confusion. We were inconsolable at this point and left completely in the dark as to their fate.
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<div>Most of Mally’s raccoons had been subjected to profound trauma, and often severe abuse and cruelty before coming to us, they're vulnerable and in no way should have been retraumatized like this under any condition.  
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<div>Our raccoon patients require extensive and scheduled medical care, including; critical medications, physiotherapy, special diets and/or tube feeding, none of which the MNRF are capable of providing. This thoughtless mishandling of our raccoon patients WILL most definitely result in the declination of their health to critical and potentially fatal status. All being said, we strongly feel that these animals are in IMMINENT DANGER and at risk of EXECUTION by the Enforcement Branch of the MNRF, a branch of provincial government that should have been concerned with their care and preservation.
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<div>Sadly, the MNRF elected to use a heavy-handed approach to exercise regulatory compliance at Mally’s. As a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator/Custodian, Mally’s looked to the MNRF as a partner in wildlife care, rescue, and rehabilitation and can only feel deeply betrayed by this unnecessary action. While the MNRF maintains the right to attend Ministry-licensed willdife rehabilitation facilities to inspect and provide guidance and compliance reports, these inspections should not interfere with our primary mission of animal care. With no inspections or concerns addressed previous to this raid and seizure for more than 18 months, we cannot understand how the MNRF can even begin to justify this deplorable act and abuse of power over alleged regulatory/administrative infractions, as there were no allegations of animal abuse or neglect. Yet, now the lives of 87 of our precious raccoons are in danger.
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<div>We can only protect these beloved raccoons with your support and action, so we are asking you, the public, as lovers of precious wildlife, to join us in stopping this mass killing of the animals you care so much about and we've all invested so much into to save. We must fight back against the provincial government's unjustified seizure and inhumane handling, we MUST give Mally’s raccoons a voice, we can only do that through legal action. 
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<div><strong>As a non-profit Wildlife Rehabililtation Centre, that receives absolutely no funding from the government, Mally's hands are tied and they have no choice but to rely on the community to fund this costly legal battle, so together we can right the wrongs of the MNRF, to;</strong>
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<li><strong><em>Save Mally’s 87 raccoons unjustly and inhumanely seized, that are now at risk</em></strong>
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<li><strong><em>Reinstate Mally's authorization and keep them operational so they can continue saving wildlife</em></strong>
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<li><strong><em>Hold the MNRF accountable for their gross, overreaching enforcement tactics that terrorized a centre full of community volunteers </em></strong>
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<li><strong><em>Provide the necessary defense to counter charges, should any be laid </em></strong>
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<li><strong><em>Facilitate a complete overhaul of the MNRF so that no other Wildlife Custodian and/or Volunteer has to experience an unwarranted traumatic ambush, like Mally's did</em></strong>
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<li><strong><em>Reform the impossible and vastly archaic wildlife rehabilitation legislature to aide in achievable compliance and compassionate animal care</em></strong>
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<li><strong><em>End or dramatically improve the current antagonistic 'Master &amp; Slave' relationship the MNRF has with authorized Wildlife Custodians across Ontario </em></strong>
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<div><strong>If successful, these outcomes will not only foster the creation and rise of new vital authorized Wildlife Custodians in Ontario, but will do so under legislation that is realistic, compassionate and compliance-friendly. Further, change to the current legislation will help form cohesive, professional relationships between MNRF staff and Wildlife Custodians that ensures success (rather than failure) and forbids such malicious and illogical military-style raids, abuse of power, inhumane handling and seizure of animals caught in the crossfire, and the infringement of civil liberties.</strong>
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<div>Please, we implore you, to donate in order to fund, what we know will be a long fought legal battle, against the MNRF! We must hold them accountable in order to save Mally’s raccoons and essential wildlife rehabilitation across Ontario.
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<div>Sincerely,
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<div>Mally’s Raccoon Rescue &amp; Care Team ❤️❤️
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Be Part of Mally’s Fight & Save Ontario's Wildlife

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