Earlier this month, Cape Wildlife Center in southeast Massachusetts posted a call for help on social media. The animal rescue service was asking for donations for their rescued animals. That request isn’t unusual, but what they needed that money for certainly was. 

“We have to admit, this is a strange request even for us. We’re asking you to help us buy… mice,” reads the post, featuring a photograph of two fluffy owls. 

The wildlife center went on to explain that for many years, a special partnership has provided them with lab mice that were no longer necessary in the laboratory. These donated mice were then eaten by both Cape Wildlife Center’s wildlife hospitals’ patients and a significant number of their ambassador animals. 

The dynamic “quietly helped save thousands of wild lives.” But “unfortunately, that donation has come to an end.” And it couldn’t have come at a worse time—during baby season and Cape Wildlife Center’s busiest year ever. 

Every year, their hospital patients and ambassador animals chow down on around 31,725 frozen mice. If the organization buys them on the open market, it will cost their yearly budget an extra estimated $30,000 to 45,000. And as they rightfully point out on their social media post, food for their animals isn’t an expense that can be put on hold.    

“Every hawk, owl, fox, snake, and weasel that comes through our doors depends on a species-appropriate diet to heal. We can’t substitute something else, and we can’t ask them to wait until the budget catches up,” they wrote. “Feeding them is simply part of the care they need.”

The social media post wrapped up with a request for donations, and a happy update about a donor who will match all dollar donations to the mouse fund up to 10,000 dollars. Receiving that news mouse-t have made their day.