SNOHOMISH — Black bears cubs in Snohomish County need your help.
PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is currently caring for ten of them — and they need donations and food to help care for them.
The animals collectively consume 175 pounds of food each day, prompting the organization to ask the public for food and gift card donations to support their care.
PAWS is one of only two facilities in Washington state permitted to rehabilitate American Black Bears.
Hosting 10 cubs simultaneously is an unusually high number for the rehabilitation center, creating an unexpected demand on resources.
“Bear cubs eat roughly 140 pounds of food, mixed diet,” Sara Gómez Taylor, PAWS Associate Director of Communications, said. “You start growing that number, you start crunching the numbers, and it’s ‘How do we keep them fed sufficiently?’”
PAWS later clarified that 140 pounds is an average amount of food for eight bears. PAWS is dealing with 10.
To meet the nutritional needs of the cubs, the facility is seeking specific items from the public.
PAWS is currently seeking:
- Vegetables: Carrots, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, broccoli, sweet peppers, lettuce and cabbage
- Fish: Salmon and other whole fish that have been frozen for less than six months.
- Gift Cards: Costco or Safeway
- Business partners: Local farms, grocers, produce suppliers, restaurants, and other businesses interested in helping provide food for the bears and other wildlife in PAWS’ care
The cubs arrive at the facility through rescue partners who locate them across the region, meaning their exact background details are often unavailable.
Gómez Taylor explained that the bears enter care for various reasons.
“A lot of times their stories are different,” Gómez Taylor said. “They can be coming because they’re injured. They could be coming because they are orphaned.”
Gómez Taylor noted that young bears face distinct challenges without maternal guidance.
“If they’re orphaned, they don’t know how to live in the wild yet,” the staff member said.
Throughout their time at the center, caretakers limit human contact to ensure the animals remain wild. A central goal of the rehabilitation process is helping the cubs gain sufficient weight to survive on their own.
“They do have to reach a certain weight, which is the feeding part of it, in order to successfully go into the wild and go back home,” Gómez Taylor said.
Five of the 10 cubs currently at the center are expected to be ready for release back into the wild this fall.
Members of the public who wish to drop off food or gift card donations can bring them to the PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Snohomish between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., seven days a week.