Finding an injured or orphaned wild animal in Los Angeles is more common than most people realize. A baby opossum on the sidewalk, a hawk with a damaged wing in your backyard, a squirrel that fell from a nest during a storm — these situations happen constantly across the greater Los Angeles area, and most people who encounter them have no idea what to do or who to call.
This post covers the main wildlife rescue organizations in Los Angeles that accept injured and orphaned animals, what each one specializes in, how to contact them, and what to do in the hours between finding the animal and getting it to the right place.
Why You Can’t Just Take Wildlife to Any Vet
The first instinct most people have when they find an injured wild animal is to take it to their nearest veterinary clinic. This is understandable but often not the right move. Most general practice veterinarians are not licensed or equipped to treat wildlife, and many will decline to accept a wild animal even if you bring one in. Wildlife medicine is a specialized field with its own licensing requirements, dietary protocols, and rehabilitation standards that go well beyond what a typical small animal vet is trained and equipped to handle.
California state law also requires specific permits to possess, treat, and rehabilitate native wildlife. This means that even well-meaning people who want to care for an injured animal themselves are technically in violation of state law without the appropriate permits, and more importantly, are likely to cause unintentional harm through improper diet, handling, or housing that doesn’t meet the animal’s specific needs.
The right destination for any injured or orphaned wild animal in Los Angeles is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator — an individual or organization that holds the proper state and federal permits to legally possess and care for native wildlife with the goal of releasing them back into their natural habitat.
Pasadena Humane Society
Pasadena Humane Society is one of the most well-known and well-resourced wildlife rehabilitation organizations in the greater Los Angeles area. They accept a wide range of injured and orphaned native wildlife including opossums, squirrels, rabbits, songbirds, raptors, and other animals commonly found in suburban and urban Los Angeles environments.
Their wildlife rehabilitation program is staffed by trained professionals and volunteers who specialize in the specific dietary, medical, and behavioral needs of native California wildlife. Animals that arrive at Pasadena Humane Society receive species-appropriate care with the goal of eventual release back into the wild when the animal is healthy and old enough to survive independently.
Pasadena Humane Society is located at 361 South Raymond Avenue in Pasadena and can be reached by phone for wildlife intake questions before you bring an animal in. It’s always worth calling ahead to confirm intake availability and get specific instructions for the type of animal you’ve found, since some species may require particular handling or transport considerations.
California Wildlife Center
California Wildlife Center is a dedicated wildlife rehabilitation facility located in Malibu that serves the greater Los Angeles area including the San Fernando Valley, the Westside, and surrounding communities. Unlike a general humane society that handles domestic animals alongside wildlife, California Wildlife Center focuses exclusively on native California wildlife, which means their resources and expertise are concentrated entirely on wild animal care and rehabilitation.
They accept a broad range of species including marine mammals in some cases, and their staff includes veterinarians and trained rehabilitators with deep expertise in native California wildlife medicine. California Wildlife Center can be reached through their website and by phone, and they provide guidance on what to do with a found animal before transport if you’re unsure how to handle the specific situation you’re dealing with.
Wildlife Care of Southern California
Wildlife Care of Southern California operates in the Inland Empire and eastern Los Angeles County area, making them a resource for residents in communities like Pomona, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, and the eastern San Gabriel Valley. They accept injured and orphaned native wildlife and provide rehabilitation services with a focus on eventual release.
For residents in the eastern portions of Los Angeles County, Wildlife Care of Southern California may be a closer option than facilities located in Pasadena or on the Westside, which matters when you have an injured animal that needs to reach care as quickly as possible.
LAAS Wildlife Programs
Los Angeles Animal Services, the city’s municipal animal services agency, has resources and referrals for wildlife situations in addition to its primary focus on domestic animals. While LAAS itself is not a wildlife rehabilitation facility, they can connect callers with appropriate resources and in some cases dispatch animal control officers for wildlife situations that pose a public safety concern, such as a large injured animal in a roadway or a situation involving a potentially dangerous species.
LAAS operates multiple shelters across Los Angeles and can be reached through the city’s 311 information line as well as directly. For wildlife situations specifically, they are typically most useful as a referral source rather than a direct intake facility, but their ability to dispatch officers can be valuable in situations where the animal cannot be safely transported by a member of the public.
Wildlife Waystation
Wildlife Waystation has historically been one of the larger wildlife sanctuaries in the Los Angeles area, though its operations have faced challenges in recent years. For current intake availability and accepted species, it’s worth checking directly rather than assuming the same level of services that were historically available. When operational, they have accepted a wide range of species including larger animals that many smaller facilities cannot accommodate.
What to Do While You Wait or Arrange Transport
Finding the right organization is step one. Getting the animal there safely is step two, and what happens in between matters significantly for the animal’s survival and stress levels.
Keep the animal in a quiet, dark, contained space while you arrange transport. A cardboard box with small ventilation holes, lined with a soft cloth or paper towel, works for most small animals. Avoid handling the animal more than necessary — human contact is stressful for wild animals, and excessive handling can cause a phenomenon called capture myopathy, where stress-induced physiological responses cause serious harm even without any physical injury.
Do not attempt to feed or water the animal unless you have been specifically instructed to do so by a wildlife rehabilitator. Incorrect food or water given to an orphaned or injured animal can cause serious harm, particularly for species with very specific dietary requirements. Baby opossums, for instance, require a carefully calibrated formula rather than anything commonly available at home, and improper feeding is one of the most common causes of metabolic bone disease in young opossums in captivity.
Keep the animal away from pets, children, and excessive noise. A stressed wild animal in an already compromised state needs quiet and darkness more than anything else while transport is being arranged.
Getting the Animal to a Rehabilitator When You Don’t Have Transportation
One of the most common barriers people face when they find an injured wild animal is not knowing how to get it to a rehabilitator, particularly if they don’t have a car, can’t leave work, or are otherwise unable to make the trip themselves.
This is exactly the kind of situation that a private pet transportation service can help with. At Pets Go Taxi, we recently transported a baby opossum named Fern — rescued by a caring Los Angeles resident who didn’t have access to a car — from Huntington Park to Pasadena Humane Society’s wildlife rehabilitation program. Fern arrived safely in her own box, stress minimized, with the rehabilitators already expecting her.
If you’ve found an injured or orphaned wild animal in the Los Angeles area and need help getting it to a licensed rehabilitator, text Brian directly or fill out the contact form to arrange transport. We serve Los Angeles, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, and surrounding communities, and we understand that wildlife situations often need to be handled quickly rather than waiting for a convenient time.
A Note on Baby Opossums Specifically
Baby opossums are among the most commonly found orphaned wildlife in Los Angeles, and they’re also among the most misunderstood. Opossums are North America’s only marsupial, meaning they carry their young in a pouch similar to kangaroos, and orphaned babies found on the ground have typically either fallen from the mother’s back or been separated after the mother was injured or killed.
Despite their reputation, opossums are gentle, beneficial animals that cause no harm and provide real ecological value — they eat ticks, insects, rodents, and other pests, and they are highly resistant to rabies due to their low body temperature. A baby opossum found alone is almost certainly in need of help, since they cannot survive independently until they reach a certain size and age, and their specific dietary needs make home care by anyone without wildlife rehabilitation training genuinely risky for the animal.
If you find a baby opossum in Los Angeles, contact Pasadena Humane Society or one of the other organizations listed above as quickly as possible, keep the animal warm and quiet in the interim, and arrange transport to get them there safely.