Martine Colette founded the Wildlife WayStation in 1976 at its
current location, an outgrowth of animal rescue work she began in 1969.
She is currently its Director of Animal Services.

The daughter of a Belgian diplomat and naturalist, Ms. Colette
traveled the world as a child and young adult, often on safaris to
observe wild animals. During those years of watching the plight of
animals, she decided helping them would be her life’s calling. She
discovered that she had an innate ability to diagnose and help heal
injured and sick animals, despite few available veterinarians or
medicines.

When Ms. Colette moved to Southern California to open a costume
business for the movie industry in the 1960s, people began bringing her
animals they could no longer care for properly. When the menagerie
filling her three-room house reached 50, she decided it was time to
move and purchased 160 acres in Little Tujunga Canyon, incorporating
the Wildlife WayStation in 1977 (the term “waystation” comes from the
Old West, meaning a place to rest and refuel). Ms. Colette sold her
business to devote full-time to saving wild and exotic animals.

The WayStation currently has 400 animal residents during remodeling;
historically, twice that many live there at any given time and at least
several thousand are given medical treatment each year. Over 76,000
animal lives have been saved since the WayStation was opened.

Ms. Colette has been a designated Animal Expert for the City of Los Angeles.