SEQUIM — Jaye Moore’s 30th year of wildlife rescue and rehabilitation work will be celebrated during the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center’s sold-out second annual Mardi Gras fundraising party Saturday.
About 150 people have purchased tickets to the party, which was sold out as of Wednesday, said Matthew Randazzo, raptor center spokesman.
Ticket holders get a daytime tour of the center and and get to take part in the evening festivities, which begin at 6:30 p.m. at the SunLand Country Club ballroom in Sequim and include a New Orleans-style buffet dinner, a large silent auction, costume contests and music and dancing.
Winner of the 2011 Clallam County Community Service Award, Moore is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center at 1051 Oak Court in Sequim.
The wildlife rehabilitation center is permitted specially by the state and federal government to rescue, rehabilitate and release back into nature all species of wildlife.
More than 200 animals
In 2011, the center treated more than 200 animals, including such species as bald eagles, bobcats, deer, peregrine falcons, red-tail hawks, barn owls, skunks and geese.
Moore, who has been helping injured wild animals informally since she was a small child, began rescuing wild animals professionally in 1982, apprenticing under a licensed rehabber in Clallam Bay.
She moved to Sequim in 1992.
She works as a volunteer, accepting no salary.
“I do what I do for the critters, the animals who every day give me joy and inspiration,” Moore said. “I do what I do to act as a friend and voice for the voiceless.”
Moore has personally rescued thousands of wild animals as a full-time rehabber across northwest Washington, responding to rescue calls across the Olympic Peninsula and beyond.
In any one year, she may travel as far south as Grays Harbor or Mason counties and as far east as Whidbey and Bainbridge islands.
The raptor center exclusively partners with Dr. Mike Tyler and Dr. Jennifer Tavares of Greywolf Veterinary Hospital in Sequim for its veterinary medical needs.
Specialize in raptors
Although Moore has rehabilitated everything from baby hummingbirds to mountain lion, elk and black bear, she has always specialized in “raptors” — birds of prey like eagles, hawks, owls and falcons.
For more information or to donate to the center, visit www.nwraptorcenter.com or phone 360-681-2283.
