Meet Connie LaFond

Native Minnesotan Connie LaFond takes a hands-on approach to helping wildlife. She serves as board treasurer for the International Wolf Center, keeps prairie habitat on her property intact for native birds, and is a licensed in-home wildlife rehabilitator. Over the years, she has cared for raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, owls and even a river otter, but her specialty is foxes.

Connie has always loved wolves, foxes and coyotes, so when The Humane Society asked if she could take in a litter of fox kits, she jumped at the chance. Soon after, she and her husband Nick, a retired physician, converted a portion of their 45-acre hobby farm to house orphaned, sick and injured red and gray foxes—she took in a record  number of 17 last year—until the animals are ready for release. But the most meaningful way to help wildlife, she says, is to protect habitat. “You can do all the rehab in the world, but if there’s no place to release these animals, it’s kind of pointless.”