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A note about fur donations: Due to overwhelming response, Born Free USA currently has too much fur to send to our participating rehabs/sanctuaries. Therefore, WE ARE SUSPENDING FUR COLLECTION FOR THE TIME BEING. If you would like to donate fur, please see this list of quality rehab facilities that may be interested in fur donations.
Campaign Overview
Born Free USA’s “Fur for the Animals” campaign is a donation drive to collect coats, hats, and other accessories made from animal fur. After the drive has ended, we send the donations to wildlife rehabilitation centers and animal sanctuaries across the country. These facilities use the fur to provide familiar comfort, warmth, and enrichment to injured, orphaned, and rescued wildlife.
One of our key campaign goals is to reduce the supply, demand, and social acceptance of fur in fashion. We aim to end the cycle of the fur industry, from the traps and fur farms to the retail outlets selling fur. This donation drive not only helps wild animals in need, but also serves as a powerful signal that fur belongs to the animals—not to fashion. While we cannot undo the suffering of the many animals who died needlessly for fur garments, we can take fur out of circulation wherever possible and give it back to fur-bearing wildlife.
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Video PlaylistWatch as rescued animals enjoy fur donated by Born Free USA through the Fur for the Animals campaign! |
Campaign History
The Fur for the Animals donation drive was first launched in spring 2014, and brought in more than 100 fur donations. That number quadrupled to more than 400 items during the 2015 drive. The 2016 drive saw that total quadrupled again, with more than 1,800 donations! The items from the 2016 donation drive are worth an estimated $4.1 million; however, the true cost comes from the nearly 60,000 animals who were cruelly and needlessly killed to make these coats, capes, vests, gloves, scarves, and more.
While the majority of the donations were fur coats and stoles made from mink, rabbit, and fox, we have also received several surprising and disturbing items, including a vest made entirely from the tails of coyotes, and a coat, muff, and hat made from Geoffroy’s cat fur: a South American cat that was nearly wiped out in the 1960s-1980s for its pelt. We have also received hides from white-tailed deer, bison, and zebra, and a very tattered rug made from a trophy-hunted mountain lion.
While most donations are sent directly to wildlife centers to turn into the sizes they need to help their animals, some items are repurposed beforehand by generous volunteers. In early 2016, members of Girl Scout Troop 5051 in Derwood, Maryland sewed several fur coats into smaller cushions and blankets to comfort small, baby animals. In January 2017, Born Free USA partnered with the Ian Somerhalder Foundation Youth Volunteer Program to alter fur donations into cushions and enrichment items for the rescued wildlife at Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary in Locust Grove, Georgia.
Fur for the Animals Partners
For this campaign, Born Free USA partners with the following wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centers. We send collected fur to these facilities and ensure they have enough on hand to comfort injured and orphaned wildlife throughout the year, particularly during spring wildlife baby season!
East Coast Exotic Animal Rescue in Fairfield, PA provides homes for misused, abused, or otherwise cast out animals. They house more than 40 species of exotic animals, including birds, carnivores, primates, and reptiles.
North Park Wildlife Rehabilitation in Walden, CO is an organization dedicated to the care and rehabilitation of injured and orphaned birds and mammals.
Wildlife Rescue Team was founded in 1979 in Lincoln, Nebraska. WRT is an independent, all volunteer organization dedicated solely to the rescue and rehabilitation of Nebraska’s orphaned and injured wildlife, and its return to its natural habitat. In addition to wildlife rehabilitation, WRT also provides educational programs to the community.
Fox Valley Wildlife Center in Elburn, Illinois has been serving the needs of sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife from Kane county and the surrounding areas since 2001.
SOAR Wildlife Center in Ashland, Oregon is dedicated to advancing wildlife rehabilitation while preserving wildlife in nature and to provide public education so as to foster the peaceful coexistence between humans and wildlife.
TWRC Wildlife Center in Houston, Texas is dedicated to promoting environmental conservation through public education and rehabilitation of Texas wildlife. Since 1979, TWRC Wildlife Center has had over 145,000 injured, orphaned, or ill wild animals pass through their care, and they frequently accept squirrels, opossums, rabbits, raccoons, birds of prey, waterfowl, migratory birds, turtles, and snakes.
Sacred Friends, Inc. in Norfolk, Virginia, provides care for sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife while teaching about the connection between Native Americans and wildlife. Sacred Friends, Inc. specializes in raptors and water birds but will also provide care to any other species.
Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary is a 250-acre facility in Locust Grove, Georgia that provides care and treatment for more than 1,500 animals (exotic, wildlife, and domestic). Noah’s Ark offers habitats that have the animals’ best interests in mind and that mimic their natural environments. The sanctuary promotes humane, responsible, and informed animal treatment and ownership.
Mississippi Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc. was formed in 1995 and is the only state-licensed facility for wildlife rehabilitation in northern Mississippi. MWR, Inc. is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization where hundreds of injured and orphaned wild birds and mammals receive care each year. It also offers a variety of educational programs for community festivals, civic organizations, and school children.
Wet Mountain Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc. in Westcliffe, Colorado has cared for orphaned and injured animals for more than 30 years. While it accepts all species native to Colorado, it is one of only three facilities in the state that cares for large mammals, including bears, pronghorn, and deer.
Thunder Eagle Wildlife, located in rural Dinwiddie County, Virginia, is state and federally permitted by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Federal Wildlife Service to provide care and treatment of injured, orphaned, or displaced wildlife, including rabies vector species. Its goal is to support nature’s balance by compassionately caring for wildlife (specializing in raptors) and by working closely with local conservation officers, animal shelters, veterinary clinics, and the public.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado is the oldest and largest nonprofit sanctuary in the world dedicated exclusively to rescuing captive exotic and endangered large carnivores. Sitting on 720 acres of rolling grassland, the sanctuary provides a home for more than 400 lions, tigers, leopards, bears, mountain lions, wolves, and other large carnivores.
OPR Coastal Primate Sanctuary in Longview, Washington is a USDA-licensed sanctuary and independent, nonprofit organization that was first established on a small acreage in Dallas, Oregon in 1998. The sanctuary provides lifetime care in a humane and enriching environment to unwanted, orphaned, or crippled monkeys who originate from private owners, government agencies, and research.
The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center is a 13-acre facility in Ramona, California where orphaned and injured wildlife are treated with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. The center specializes in hawks, owls, eagles, skunks, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions. In addition, The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center also cares for nearly 40 full-time residents rescued from the exotic pet trade and other acts of cruelty.
Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation was founded in 1977. In 2004, it was relocated to a 212-acre facility near Kendalia, Texas, providing a permanent home for a variety of mammals (e.g., wolves, bears, big cats, and primates) and non-indigenous birds and reptiles. Each year, more than 7,000 animals are brought here—the majority of whom are rehabilitated and released or given lifetime sanctuary.
Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in Boyce, Virginia employs skilled wildlife rehabilitators to rescue and rehabilitate more than 1,700 mammals, birds, and reptiles every year. It works to save thousands more through its wildlife hotline, education programs, newsletters, and social media.
Chintimini Wildlife Center in Corvallis, Oregon provides care for more than 1,000 injured and orphaned animals every year, with the goal of returning them to their natural habitats. The center also fosters a connection between people and wildlife through education. Chintimini is home to a wildlife rehabilitation clinic, a raptor conservation program, and a youth education program.
Snowdon Wildlife Sanctuary in McCall, Idaho specializes in the rehabilitation of local wildlife, including orphaned baby birds and mammals, and injured small mammals, songbirds, waterfowl, and raptors. Snowdon has operated since the early 1980s, and is designated by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game as the only facility in the state permitted to rehabilitate weaned black bear cubs.
Gila Wildlife Rescue in Silver City, New Mexico cares for (and is licensed for) all wildlife, but specializes in raptors and mammals. Founded in 1979, the group has cared for 100-300 animals per year.
Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in San Jose, California with approximately 120 volunteers. The center cares for more than 4,000 birds and mammals annually from more than 150 species, providing high quality care and rehabilitation for injured, sick, and orphaned wildlife. Through educational programs, the center fosters positive coexistence between the public and wildlife, and encourages an interest in, and concern for, wildlife conservation issues.
Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center is a wildlife sanctuary that provides a home for wolves, coyotes, foxes, and other wild canids.
We are always looking for more partners for this campaign! If you know of a wildlife rehabilitation center in need of fur, email us at info@bornfreeusa.org.