wild animals as pets in Prince George: local veterinary clinics and who to call
6 min read · October 13, 2026
Local clinics and contacts for keeping wild animals as pets, plus how to prepare for a visit so it is worth the trip.
Knowing who to call before you need them is the most useful thing you can do for keeping wild animals as pets. Prince George has several clinics, plus a wildlife reporting line and an SPCA branch, and their publicly listed details are below. Keeping native wildlife as a pet is generally prohibited and, separately, does not work. Wild animals do not lose their instincts, they suffer in domestic settings, they injure people as they mature, and they usually cannot be released once habituated.
What actually matters here
Keeping native wildlife as a pet is generally prohibited and, separately, does not work. Wild animals do not lose their instincts, they suffer in domestic settings, they injure people as they mature, and they usually cannot be released once habituated.
Wildlife guidance is safety guidance. Nothing in this article suggests keeping, feeding, approaching or taming a wild animal, and every one of those is both dangerous and, in most cases, against the law in British Columbia.
Every household is a little different, so treat the routine below as a starting template you adjust rather than a rulebook.
Do these four things first
If you only change four things this month, change these. They cover most of the day-to-day and none of them take long.
- Do not take a wild animal home under any circumstances
- Report anyone selling native wildlife
- Choose a domesticated species instead
- Support licensed rehabilitation rather than private keeping
The mistake to avoid
Believing an animal raised from infancy will stay tame.
It is worth writing that one down somewhere the whole household can see, because these errors are almost always made by the person who was not part of the original conversation.
A realistic weekly rhythm
Daily: food, water, movement or enrichment, and a two-minute look-over for limps, lumps, sore ears, dirty eyes or changed toileting. Weekly: grooming, enclosure or bedding cleaning, nail check, and a quick top-up of supplies. Monthly: weigh the animal and write the number down, check that preventive medication is current, and walk the property for new hazards.
Yearly: a full veterinary exam, an honest review of whether the routine still fits your life, and a refresh of the emergency plan — who takes the animal if you are in hospital, and where the carrier, records and medication live.
Writing this on the fridge does more than any app. Households fail at animal care through diffusion of responsibility, not through lack of goodwill.
Who to call in Prince George
For wildlife in a residential area, the reporting line below is the correct first call. For a domestic animal that has been injured by wildlife, phone your veterinary clinic immediately. These are publicly listed local contacts, provided for convenience only — hours and services change, so confirm directly.
- Prince George Veterinary Hospital — Small-animal veterinary hospital serving Prince George and the surrounding region.
- Murdoch Veterinary Clinic — Veterinarians, registered veterinary technologists and equine resources. · 2933 Gunn Rd., Prince George, BC V2N 2H8 · murdochvet.com
- Birchwood Veterinary Clinic — Cats, dogs and exotic pets; weekday and Saturday hours. · 250-561-6500 · birchwoodvet.ca
- Hart Family Veterinary Clinic — Locally owned small-animal clinic in the Hart. · 3708 Austin Road West, Prince George, BC · hartfamilyvet.com
- Ospika Animal Hospital — Long-established Prince George practice offering in-clinic and virtual appointments. · ospikavet.com
- College Heights Veterinary Clinic — Full-service clinic in the College Heights area. · chvc.ca
- Green Mobile Veterinary Services — Mobile veterinary service, contacted by phone or text. · 250-640-3784 · greenmobileveterinary.ca
- BC SPCA (North Cariboo District Branch) — Adoption, surrender support and animal-cruelty reporting. · spca.bc.ca
- BC Conservation Officer Service — RAPP line — Report a bear, moose or other wildlife conflict in a residential area. · 1-877-952-7277
Through the year in Prince George
Spring (March to May) brings mud, thaw, and the return of bears looking for the first easy food of the year. Attractants go away now, not in June.
Summer means long daylight, heat on paws and in parked vehicles, wildfire smoke that affects animals with airways just as it affects people, and busy trails.
Autumn is the heaviest wildlife-conflict season as animals feed hard before winter, and it is the right time for a pre-winter health check.
Winter runs long here. Cold injury, ice, salted sidewalks, dry indoor air and dark walk times are the whole list, and every one of them is manageable with gear and timing.
A daily two-minute health check
Wildlife safety starts at home, and the daily version takes two minutes: look at the bins, the barbecue, the fruit trees, the compost and anything edible left outdoors. Almost every conflict in a northern town begins with something that could have been put away.
Do the same walk-around after guests, after a barbecue and on garbage night. One unsecured bin teaches an animal that the whole street is worth checking, and that lesson is very hard to undo.
- Bins secured or stored indoors until collection morning
- Barbecue cleaned, grease tray emptied
- Fruit picked and windfall cleared
- Pet food, bowls and freezers kept inside
- Bird feeders down through bear season
When to phone a veterinarian instead of waiting
Some situations do not benefit from a wait-and-see approach. Laboured or noisy breathing, collapse, seizures, repeated unproductive retching with a swollen abdomen, straining to urinate with nothing produced, uncontrolled bleeding, suspected poisoning, a suspected fracture, or any animal that has stopped eating for a day and is not itself — all of these warrant a phone call straight away.
Phone first rather than simply driving over. The clinic can tell you what to bring, prepare a room, and in some cases start advising you on the phone while you travel. Have the animal's weight, current medications and any packaging from a suspected toxin ready when you call.
Nothing in this article is a diagnosis. It is written to help you recognise when a professional is needed, not to replace one.
Budgeting honestly for the animal's whole life
The purchase or adoption fee is the smallest cost an animal will ever generate. Food, preventive medicine, parasite control, dental care, grooming, boarding or pet sitting, licensing and replacement equipment run every year, and an emergency can arrive in any of them.
Two approaches work: pet insurance taken out while the animal is young and healthy, or a dedicated savings account funded automatically each month. What does not work is having neither and making medical decisions under financial pressure in a waiting room.
Ask for a written estimate before any planned procedure. Good clinics expect the question and answer it plainly.
Travel, boarding and who takes over if you cannot
Every household with an animal needs a named backup — a person who has agreed in advance, knows where the food, records, carrier and medication are, and has a key. Illness and hospital stays are the situations that catch people out, and they arrive without notice.
Write a single page and stick it inside a cupboard door: the animal's name, age, weight, diet and amounts, medication and doses, clinic name and number, microchip number, and the backup carer's phone number. It takes ten minutes and it has saved a lot of animals a bad week.
Key points to remember
Everything above comes back to a few ideas worth keeping: Manage attractants, keep your distance, keep pets close, and report conflicts to the people whose job it is.
Work through it in small, repeatable steps rather than in one push, write down whatever you decide so the next person does not have to rediscover it, and ask for help early rather than at the point where the problem has become urgent.
Manage attractants, keep your distance, keep pets close, and report conflicts to the people whose job it is.
Latest — Nadine F.: Honestly more useful than the three videos I watched first. Give it two weeks before you judge whether it's working.