In a suburb southeast of Paris, the Wildlife Veterinary Hospital in Maisons-Alfort operates on a simple rule: the care matters, but the goal is not to keep rescued wildlife as pets. The hospital takes in injured, sick and orphaned animals—often wildlife harmed by people and by the pressures of increasing urbanization—then treats them so they can heal and return to their natural habitat.
Last week, that process started again with a female fox cub found alone in a garden on the city’s outskirts, with no sign of her mother nearby. Volunteers began caring for the cub around the clock, estimating she was about two weeks old—far too young to survive on her own.
Veterinarian Julie Piazza examined the fox cub and found that, aside from a minor injury, it appeared to be in good health. Because the cub was fed artificial milk, Piazza said the cub’s abdomen was swollen, adding that it can happen when a young animal’s diet is disrupted.
Animal caretaker Valentin Delon described the routines that keep the fox cub—like other patients—from becoming too attached to people. Delon said the team would make sure the cub was eating well and, if necessary, would provide supplemental bottles to help it gain enough weight. He also said any “imprinting”—measures that attach animals to their caregiver long term—must be avoided, explaining that volunteers don’t cuddle the animals and don’t talk to them, keeping what he called “a distance to maintain” for the animals’ eventual release.
Once animals are healed enough to move beyond hand-feeding and clinical observation, the hospital transfers them to outdoor enclosures and aviaries to prepare for reintroduction into their natural environment. Delon said juvenile foxes that are ready for the next step are first moved to a rehabilitation center and kept with other foxes in an enclosure, then released gradually by opening the door so the animals can come and go while still being fed, before food is reduced. The approach is designed to improve survival after release rather than to end care abruptly.
The hospital, run by the Faune Alfort group, is described as the only facility in the greater Paris area that treats a wide range of wild species. Faune Alfort said about 86% of its patients are birds, and it has seen a range of cases including a swan with a broken wing, injured hedgehogs, ducklings often found on balconies without their parents, and pigeons treated with the same attention as rarer birds.
Elisa Mora, head of communications for Faune Alfort, said admissions climb during the April-to-September “juvenile period when wild animals reproduce,” and she said the hospital reported a record 200 admissions in a single day last summer. Mora said wildlife is already vulnerable, but juveniles are “even more so,” and she said animals too badly injured or unable to return to the wild have to be euthanized.
Faune Alfort also links many of the cases it receives to human impact. The group said as many as 60% to 80% of admissions are victims of road collisions, animals caught in barbed wire, or injuries from people using gardening tools or agricultural machinery. The veterinary and volunteer effort is structured as a response to that recurring pattern—helping people who find a wild animal in distress understand that a care center exists, even when the initial reaction is uncertainty about what can be done.