Staff at Councilmember Gale Brewer’s district office at 563 Columbus Avenue caught a mouse this week and carried it next door to the Wild Bird Fund in a glass jar. The animal’s fate after the handoff has not been established.
The capture happened Monday, according to West Side Rag. Brewer told the outlet, “In a glass jar, we walked it next door to the Wild Bird Fund.” She said staff made the decision after “Nobody wanted to take the mouse home.”
Brewer said she thought the mouse was cute and viewed the nearby nonprofit as an animal-friendly destination. She also told West Side Rag, “A bird could benefit from the mouse,” and said releasing it onto the street might not have allowed it to live.
Office Explains Its Thinking, But Not the Ending
A post attributed to Brewer on X said staff caught the mouse alive and brought it to the Wild Bird Fund for its use as appropriate, according to a post from Haley Scott
.
Gothamist also reported on Brewer’s explanation for bringing the mouse to the nearby center. The reports do not establish what the organization did after the animal arrived.
What the Wild Bird Fund Actually Does
The Wild Bird Fund describes itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides care and rehabilitation for distressed wildlife with the goal of returning animals to their natural habitats, according to its own website, wildbirdfund.org. The organization has been credited with rehabilitating more than 7,000 sick, injured or orphaned wild animals around New York City each year, per a report from ABC7, which also noted that roughly 90 percent of the center's cases stem from human interference. That same report described the Wild Bird Fund as New York City's one and only wildlife rehabilitation center, a status echoed in a separate account from The Dodo, which quoted the group calling itself “the only wildlife rehabilitation facility serving this city of 8 million people.”abc7news.com
The organization relies heavily on private donations and mostly volunteer labor to keep its operation running, according to the same ABC7 report. By contrast, another local group, Urban Utopia Wildlife Rehabilitation, says on its own FAQ page that it handles small wild mammals and marsupials such as squirrels, opossums and chipmunks, but cannot currently accept birds or large mammals because it lacks a dedicated rehabilitation center of its own.
What public guidance says about wildlife intake
The Wild Bird Fund’s walk-in guidance says sick or injured birds and small mammals can be brought in during open hours. It does not specify whether mice or animals intended as food are accepted, or establish what the organization did with this mouse. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation describes a wildlife-rehabilitator license as authorizing care for injured or young orphaned wildlife for return to the wild, but that general description does not determine how this mouse would be categorized or whether it was accepted under any policy. As for another local group, Urban Utopia Wildlife Rehabilitation says it is on hiatus and has no volunteer rehabilitators at this time, so it should not be presented as an active local option.
Unanswered Questions Remain
West Side Rag reported that it asked Brewer about the mouse’s fate on Tuesday morning and tried to reach the Wild Bird Fund in person, by phone and by email. The outlet said it had not heard back from the organization as of 2:30 p.m. that day and planned to update its report if more information became available.
