Here is another one.

http://whitepinewildlife.org/

About 3 years ago I found a falcon along the road. It was in pretty good shape but one wing was broken. I managed to corner the poor guy and get him covered to be picked up. When I contact the a few individuals at the time trying to find a rescue center I got threatened a FEW times that harboring a wild animal is illegal and they were going to turn me into the police. Even the shelter I found gave me a hard time for having the bird. It was a thanks for the bird but don’t do that again attitude.

I would do it again in a hart beat but geez I got railed for trying to help.

This thread hits close to home. In my formative years, my mother held a Wildlife Rehabilitator Permit. I spent the majority of my childhood and early adulthood caring for and raising injured and orphaned wildlife.

The guiding principle was to make every attempt to reduce our human contact while caring for the critters in captivity, but as you can imagine, that’s difficult to do with 5 kids in the house lending helping hands when needed. This led my brothers and sisters to develop special relationships for the wildlife brought to us to care for. Mom had those relationships as well, even though she tried to discourage it.

It’s been 20 years since I released my last coon into the wild, but I still have very vivid memories of many of my little buddies.

Our first critter was an injured Blue Jay, “Jimmy”. After a year in our care he was released into the woods about a mile from home. You could hear him in the woods and call to him for years afterward and he’d come flying in to the feeders. You could even go talk to him if you moved slowly and didn’t freak him out.

Our all-time favorite guy was Oglethorpe, a tiny Screech Owl who would get on your shoulder and talk on your ear. One of the nicest raptors we ever raised or nursed back to health. He held a special spot in our hearts and any one of us will smile to this day when his name is mentioned

Over the years we took care of Barn Owls, Great-Horned Owls, Red-Tailed Hawks, Sparrow Hawks, Herons, Egrets, Wood Ducks, various other waterfowl, an army of Raccoons, Mallards and our fair share of song birds and squirrels. We probably raised more than 30 Robins over the years.

When Elder Bush took office he appointed a new Head of the DNR. That individual, the name escapes, made it immediately difficult to renew the permit requiring certain site standards (certain types and sizes of cages for raptors and large wildlife) that we just couldn’t meet. Remember, all rehabilitators work for free. Over the years we spent thousands of dollars on supplies, building cages and driving far and wide on a moments notice to pick up injured critters. It was too much and she gave it up about the time I left for college, which may have also had something to do with it as I was the last one out of the house. The empty nest got real empty after that.

The current permit holders are facing new challenges that are making it even tougher to get their permits which means that even more animals injured by human activity will be left to suffer and die. This is a real pity and very saddening. The feeling our entire family got when we finally released a hawk that may have come to us near death from starvation or grounded with a broken wing is a feeling I will never forget. It brought me as close to nature as I think any human is capable of getting.

I hope that the few private rehabilitators out there continue to get through the hoops for the sake of all the made-caused injuries imposed on our little buddies and can continue to bring even a few of them back from the brink.