Langley organization plans to give injured wildlife Halloween trick or treat bags

With the spooky season creeping closer, one Langley organization is getting in the festive mood by sharing special goodie bags with rescue animals.

The Critter Care Wildlife Society says they are “including our fur friends in the trick or treat festivities.”

Locals can donate to the organization, and in return trained staff members “will give the animal of your choice a goodie bag of their favourite treats,” the society said in a tweet.

People can choose to give specially curated snacks to animals including bears, beavers, raccoons, and otters.

Give a Bear a treat today; click the link below or in our profile BIO to make that happen!
.https://t.co/q3aXgZFi0O
.#fundraiser #wildlife #animals pic.twitter.com/5fJGbGRtLe

— Critter Care Wildlife Society (@CritterWildlife) October 14, 2022

“We always encourage the public to never feed wildlife, but since they’re going through rehabilitation, it’s inevitable that we have to feed them. So this is a fantastic opportunity for the public to get involved,” Brandon Dean, operations administrator with Critter Care Wildlife Society said.

But the treats may not be what you expect, instead of typical Halloween snacks, Dean says the animals are fed species specific treats.

“We make sure we try and keep it as natural of a diet as possible. But for example, we’ll give our river otters a pumpkin, and inside the pumpkin we’ll have an assortment of fish or fish eggs… something that they would typically find in the wild, but also something different. It’s a wonderful form of enrichment for them,” he adds.

Tucker loves his Trick or Treat pumpkin; thank you for your donations to help make this happen!!
.
Want to give a treat to the animals? Donate today!
.https://t.co/q3aXgZFi0O
.#wildlife #fundraiser #bobcat #animals pic.twitter.com/nRigm0dZCk

— Critter Care Wildlife Society (@CritterWildlife) October 16, 2022

Dean says the candy gram is a way to raise money for the animals going through rehabilitation over the Halloween season.

The society serves all of southern B.C., and they help over 3,000 animals every year.

“When our BC native mammals are injured or orphaned, Critter Care is here to help. While raising and caring for these beautiful animals is costly, we treasure the opportunity and take the task very seriously,” the organization said on their website.

Dean explains that the animals come to them through people bringing the injured animals in, or by the society actively going to rescues.

“We basically only do [B.C.] native mammal species. So that’s ranging from raccoons, to squirrels, to deer mice, to bobcats, to black bear cubs — and everything in between,” he said.

Dean says the society’s mandate is to, “Rescue, rehabilitate, and release our native mammal species back into the wild.”