In 1973, beginning as a dream to return wildlife to the wild, Carlton and Gladys Teate started the Florida Wildlife Hospital (FWH) to care for sick and injured animals.  For many years they cared for wildlife at their home on Otter Creek Lane in Melbourne and partnered with South Brevard Humane Society.

After going through location and management changes, the facility reopened on the current site in Palm Shores, Florida in February of 1998, working out of the house in the front of the property.

The new hospital was built, debt-free, in 2003, necessitated by the widening of US Highway 1.  Throughout all the changes, the mission has remained the same: to aid sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife and return them to their place in the ecosystem.

The original back-porch operation with all volunteers has matured from the humble beginnings to a state-of-the-art wildlife rehabilitation facility with full-time staffing and a growing network of volunteers.

Hand-in-hand with the growing rehab activity, FWH is helping neighbors throughout the service area better understand wildlife and coexist more positively.

FWH fields questions from the community regarding wildlife, provides educational programs for school groups and the public, and offers rewarding volunteer opportunities.  We work closely with Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Animal Control and Florida Fish and Wildlife as well as other wildlife rehabilitators and animal welfare groups in the state.

Since 1973, Florida Wildlife Hospital (FWH) has rescued, rehabilitated, and released thousands of sick, injured, and orphaned native Florida animals in Brevard County.

Our Mission:

Keeping wildlife wild by providing quality, compassionate care

To support that mission, FWH focuses on: 

• Providing quality care through networking, continued education, and medical advancements
• Releasing only mentally and physically “sound” native Florida wildlife that can positively contribute to the ecosystem in their intended way
• Acting as the front lines for disease detection, treatment, and prevention
• Empowering our community through education to protect native Florida wildlife and their natural environment
• Providing a place to give back through volunteering and donations
• Providing internships to engage the younger generations ensuring continued success of the wildlife rehabilitation field
• Conducting business in a sustainable and environmentally friendly fashion

Located in Palm Shores, Florida, FWH is available 365 days a year to admit wildlife patients. We care for more than 5,000 patients per year.  There is never charge for animal care but we receive no state or federal funding. FWH is the only facility of its kind in the area and provides immeasurable and critical value to the community and to the lives of the wildlife cared for at our facility. Since most of the wild animals brought to our clinic suffer from injuries or problems caused by humans, we not only aim to help animals in need, but to educate the public on how they can reduce their impact on local wildlife.

Florida Wildlife Hospital is proud to have earned the Platinum GuideStar Nonprofit Profile Seal of Transparency, the highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information. GuideStar USA’s mission is to revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving. Each year, more than 7 million people, including individual donors, nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, government officials, academic researchers, and the media, use GuideStar data to make intelligent decisions about the social sector. GuideStar Nonprofit Profiles are populated with information directly from nonprofits, the IRS, and other partners in the nonprofit sector.