Here's how donating your Christmas tree can help orphaned animals
Instead of putting your Christmas tree to the curb, the Procyon Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre would like you to consider donating it to help injured or orphaned animals.
"We and any wildlife rehabilitation and in anybody's area would love your donations of Christmas trees so long as they are real and they don't have plastic, tinsel, or anything like that that an animal could ingest," said staffer Kylee Hinde.
With over 45 outdoor enclosures at the Beeton centre, staff members aspire to have a tree in each enclosure.
"Our squirrels really love them, our raccoons love them, skunks use them for hiding places, our possums climb them as well," Hinde said.
- Download the CTV News app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates sent to your email inbox
Volunteer Elizabeth Trickey highlighted the importance of creating a natural environment for the animals.
"Sometimes we get animals in that are orphaned, and sometimes all they know is the small enclosure that we provide for them, and that's not realistic, so what we do is, we put trees in them, we put stuff that they'd find on the floor of the forest. So, it makes it a little bit more realistic, and that helps them be more successful when we release them," Trickey noted.
And staff say there are others donations that go a long way to helping the animals in their rehabilitation.
"Even if you don't have a full-size Christmas tree but you have live evergreen of any kind that you've used as a garland or for fresh bows on your front porch or in your house, so long as they don't have plastic tinsel or metal, and wine bottles or liquor bottles that you've had company over for the holidays if you can donate those, that goes so far," added Hinde.
The empty bottles are used to bring in money to help provide formula and vaccines for the animals.
This year alone, more than 1,500 animals have been admitted at the centre, an increase of 500 compared to 2022.
Anyone interested in donating empty bottles, Christmas trees or evergreens can do so at the main entrance.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
2 died in plane crash near Squamish, B.C., police confirm
Two people died after a plane went down in a remote area near Squamish, B.C. on Friday, authorities have confirmed.
After more than 100 years, Newfoundland's unknown soldier returns home
An unknown Newfoundland soldier, who fought and died on the battlefields in northeastern France during the First World War, is back home this weekend for the first time in more than a hundred years.
Blaine Higgs 'furious' over sexual education presentation
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has shared his anger on social media over a presentation in at least four high schools.
Grayson Murray's parents say the two-time PGA Tour winner died of suicide
Grayson Murray's parents said Sunday their 30-year-old son took his own life, just one day after he withdrew from a PGA Tour event.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Indianapolis 500 starts after 4-hour rain delay with Kyle Larson in the field
The Indianapolis 500 started Sunday after a rain delay of four hours with NASCAR star Kyle Larson still at the track and in the race.
Some birds may use 'mental time travel,' study finds
Real quick — what did you have for lunch yesterday? Were you with anyone? Where were you? Can you picture the scene? The ability to remember things that happened to you in the past, especially to go back and recall little incidental details, is a hallmark of what psychologists call episodic memory — and new research indicates that it’s an ability humans may share with birds called Eurasian jays.