Fox Wood Wildlife Rescue, Inc. is hosting an open house and Chinese auction to benefit injured and orphaned wildlife and to give the general public the chance to meet the organization’s rescued foxes, coyotes, dogs and more.

The open house will be held on Sunday, June 6 from 12 noon - 4 p.m. and will feature acoustic music by Roger Hill and Friends, food by Fredi, voting for favorite animals and much more. This is a fund raising event for Fox Wood, which is operated in East Concord by Elise Able who has been involved in the rescue of wild animals for almost 20 years. The center is located at 11156 Old Glenwood Road in East Concord.

As the only wildlife rescuer in the United States that specializes in foxes, Able constantly receives queries and pleas for help from people all over the state and country.

Although it is illegal to trap and keep wild foxes, many people want to raise them as exotic pets. “I strongly discourage foxes as pets,” Able says. “They become like a one-person dog and the person just can’t take care of them.” She says that most fox owners give their animals the wrong kind of diet, which makes the foxes develop poorly. “Although they’re in the canine family they are more like cats,” she says. “Cat-like canines.” She feeds the foxes in her care cat food. The babies are fed milk replacers supplemented with cat vitamins, amino acids and nutrients.

To prepare baby foxes for release back into the wild, Able tries to introduce them to older foxes in her care; unfortunately, the female fox she has used as a sort of surrogate mother for many years is just too old to do the job anymore. “What I am doing now is watching the other ones to see if they develop parenting behavior,” she says, adding that it would be dangerous to allow older foxes near the babies if they weren’t ready. Able gives the older foxes chunks of meat and watches their behavior. Foxes who are developing the parental instinct will get as close to the baby foxes as possible with the meat in their mouth - instead of eating it right away. “See, he’s doing it now,” she says, pointing to a red fox who is attempting to push his piece of venison under the fence to the babies crying on the other side. “It’s his favorite kind of meat and he hasn’t eaten it.”

When they’re old enough, the fox pups will be released back into the wild. “I break them into groups,” Able says. “I don’t release them all at once. And they don’t stay in the same place - sometimes they can travel for up to 100 miles from where they were let go.” She receives landowners’ permission to “slow release” the young foxes onto their property: she brings a large cage to the land and keeps the foxes there for several days, with plenty of food and water, to get them used to the sights and sounds around them. Then she opens the door and leaves the area. “That keeps them from running haywire as soon as they get there,” she says. “There will be food there if they need it, for about a week - but they’ll catch mice and also eat berries and grasses; foxes are omnivores, after all.”

But Able doesn’t just rescue foxes: right now she has more than 30 animals in her care: 12 adult and 13 baby foxes; 3 coyotes; 2 potbelly pigs; 1 skunk; multiple pigeons; 7 dogs and more.

Although her ultimate goal is to release rescued animals back into the wild, Able says sometimes that just isn’t possible, whether it be because the animal has spent too much time with humans or because it’s too injured to care for itself. Many of the animals will stay with her for good. “I get so much pleasure out of the animals and this is my way of giving back,” she says. “I really relish the happy endings.”

Able works full-time, is the assistant dog control officer for the Town of Concord and is a part-time dog control officer in Orchard Park. She holds state and federal licensing and a USDA license to keep exotic animals. She says she is constantly reading and researching and she attends seminars and training every year. In addition to public inquiries, state troopers, sheriff’s offices, the SPCA and the DEC also send animals to Able. Although she primarily works with mammals, Able says she will accept almost any animal on an emergency basis.

Fox Wood Wildlife Rescue operates entirely on donations and is a non-profit organization. A volunteer helps out on the weekends. Besides donations, Able says that what the center needs the most are donations of meat: venison, beef and chicken. “If you’re going through your freezer and have stuff that’s old and you’re not sure about it - we’ll take it,” she says. “We go through meat so fast you wouldn’t believe it.”

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