A rescue center for wildlife on Cape Cod is set to close this month, substantially reducing statewide capacity for treating sick and injured creatures as the organization that has supported it for years directs money toward efforts it says can help more animals elsewhere.
The Humane Society of the United States plans to shut down the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable on Nov. 18, and it has stopped admitting new animals as supporters scramble for a way to keep it open and cover its roughly $650,000 annual shortfall.
The closest center with similar capabilities is in South Weymouth, and animal welfare advocates said they do not believe there will be any way to help the estimated 2,000 animals the center serves each year.
Wayne Pacelle, humane society president and CEO, said making the closure was a difficult call, but the organization could not operate it without more community support.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to get enough people to invest in that work, despite the great work that it has done every day,’’ he said of the center, which the group has run along with the The Fund for Animals since 2000. “If programs cannot attract public support, it becomes very difficult to sustain them decade after decade.’’
He said the society is focusing on facilities in other states, where it can serve more animals.
The decision to close the center emerged Thursday as a topic in the debate over Question 3 on the Massachusetts ballot, which would ban the production and sale of eggs from hens and meat from pigs and calves kept in tight enclosures.
The humane society is a key financial backer and has given more than $2 million.
The Center for Consumer Freedom, a Washington group that has long battled the humane society over public policy topics related to animal rights, ran a full-page advertisement in The Boston Globe, criticizing the closure as the society spends money on the referendum campaign.
The advertisement, which promotes the website HumaneWatch.org, describes the moves as “just another example of HSUS’ twisted vegan agenda and upside-down priorities.’’
The group — run by Rick Berman, a man so avowedly opposed to “nanny nemeses’’ that he will answer to the title “Dr. Evil’’ — believes people may not know the humane society spends so much on policy. Its managing director, Will Coggin, described the effort as “political lobbying, basically to promote a far-reaching ban on bacon and eggs.’’
Pacelle said his donors know what they are paying for, because advocacy is a big piece of the group’s mission.
Opponents like Berman, he said, “want us to go away.’’
“They’d be very pleased if we spent all of our money on the direct care of animals, so we’re just addressing the symptoms of the problem, as opposed to the root cause of harm to so many animals.’’
He added that the group is providing direct care to more animals: 270,157 so far this year, compared with 186,218 in the comparable period in 2015.
In Massachusetts, however, those involved in wildlife care say the loss stings, because there are now fewer places to help animals that are in grave condition. There are also fewer spots for animals who may carry rabies.
“Right now if a fox gets hit by a car on the Cape, we [have to] say to that fox, ‘You’re screwed. There is no one there to help you,’ ’’ said Katrina Bergman, executive director of the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth.
That center and a clinic run by Tufts University are now the only places that can perform such services.
On the Cape, volunteers are working to get the community help keep the center open, because the humane society says it would be open to allowing organizers to use the building if they could pay for services there. A meeting on that prospect has been scheduled for Nov. 13.
One of the volunteers, Elizabeth Brooke said she does not fault the humane society for spending money on the ballot referendum, on which she will vote yes. She just wishes the organization could find some extra cash for the center, or had given more notice.
People have a responsibility to care for injured wildlife, she said.
“We handle wildlife that has been really harmed by humans. It’s a hook in the mouth, it’s a car strike, it’s landscapers inadvertently cutting nests down,’’ she said. “Our job is to bring them in, rehabilitate them, and try to get them back to being wildlife as quickly as possible.’’
Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com.
