Sunshine Haven Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehabilitation

An Interview with Karolyn Verville,
Founder of Sunshine Haven Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehabilitation

Riverside Grooming has had the pleasure to interview Karolyn Verville about her animal rescue and her start in rescue and rehabilitation.

Karolyn Verville is the founder, owner, and operator of the Sunshine Haven. The rescue provides rehabilitation to wildlife animals of all kinds that are abandoned or injured, such as raccoons, coyotes, snakes, opossums, exotics and much more.  Her wildlife rescue is home based. Although she works out of her home, she does not have a lack of wildlife that needs rehabilitation. In just one year the Sunshine Haven Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehabilitation takes in over 800 injured, abandoned and sometimes abused animals. Karolyn and her staff are extremely gracious to provide these services to the animals strictly on a non-profit basis.

Karolyn is from Quebec, Canada. She explains that in Canada there are lots of forests for animals to make their homes and not have to interact with urban cities. She then explains that California is quite the opposite as in there are more urban cities than forests, so wildlife animals have more contact with people and other wildlife on a daily basis. Which in turn leads to more animals in need of care.

Karolyn started at the County shelter as a volunteer.  She noticed that the majority of the animals that were being rescued were also being euthanized instead of rehabilitated because there was no one to rehabilitate these animals.  Karolyn was definitely willing to step up to the plate and help the animals that had been injured or abandoned as babies. That is when she started Sunshine Haven Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehabilitation. She has been rescuing and rehabilitating animals since 2009 and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon!

Karolyn and her staff care for the animals until they are healthy and then they are released back into the wild or placed in their proper environment. Karolyn also takes in exotic animals. She and her team rehabilitates the wildlife until they are completely better and then she releases them back to their habitat in which they were found. Most people will not rescue exotic animals due to the fact that they are illegal. But what Karolyn does for those exotic animals is rehabilitates them and then finds them a habitat in a state in which they are legal. She also assist the Sheriff’s office for animal cruelty cases that need to be prosecuted. Many different organizations turn to Sunshine Haven instead of going to a rescue that will resort to euthanasia instead of rehabilitation.

Karolyn’s organization has done so much great work for wildlife she was recognized by the American Red Cross with the Animal Welfare Award for 2017. What a great honor to achieve. She does her wonderful deeds not solely out of the kindness of her heart but because there is a great need for it.   

On top of being a gracious Humane Office, Karolyn also plays saxophone in a jazz band several times a year. She uses the profits from the band to continue to fund the rescue rehab. She wholeheartedly cares for animals of all species. She is a woman doing great things for many great causes and for that she will always be a wonderful person to us here at Riverside Grooming.

Please visit and like their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/SunshineHaven/