HARRISVILLE, PA. Wildlife rehabilitation center faces closing at year's end without help
Without donations, the rehab center may have to close at the end of this year.
By LAURI GALENTINE
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HARRISVILLE, Pa. -- Maryjane Angelo and her husband have spent the past three years caring for Pennsylvania's wildlife. Now, they fear they may have to give it all up.
As a ranger naturalist for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Angelo worked with injured and ill animals for several years before she packed up her family and moved to Pennsylvania because her mother needed help taking care of her farm.
It wasn't long, Angelo said, before "I found several animals that needed care but couldn't find a rehabber anywhere in the area. I had to go all the way to Meadville or down to Pittsburgh."
Her long-held love for wildlife spurred her to take action and call the state game commission to find out how to become a licensed rehabilitator in Pennsylvania.
By February 2000 she had acquired a license from the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to care for injured and orphaned raptors, mammals and songbirds, including waterfowl.
Center opens
Skye's Spirit Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center was opened on a small farm in the southwest corner of Venango County, near Barkeyville. The center accepts injured and ill reptiles, as well as most other wildlife species, except those that may carry rabies. They don't take domestic animals, she said.
"Here at our center, we take in upwards of 700 animals a year for care, with a 75 percent release rate," said Angelo.
"I've had approximately 120 animals here at one time," she said.
The animals in need may be in abundance, but the means to care for them is not, she said.
"It's just Robert and me for the most part," she said.
The few people who were willing to help out as volunteers aren't able to now because of work schedules, Angelo said.
Relying on donations
There's another problem, too, Angelo said: "We do not get paid by any state or federal organization to provide our services. We rely solely on donations to keep our center open.
"Each animal is unique, so their care ranges from supportive care, IV fluids, suturing wounds, bone repair, etc.," she said.
"A cat-caught cottontail must be on antibiotics and can cost upwards of $35 to raise, where a bird of prey that has to have a wing pinned and then the subsequent care for 3-plus months while it recovers can run upwards of $300 or more."
Angelo said 70 percent of the small animal intakes at the facility are "cat-caught wildlife, especially cottontails, squirrels and songbirds."
The majority of the rest are birds of prey that have been hit by cars and suffer concussions, fractured wings, legs or keels, she said.
A small number of the animals they care for are orphaned, she added.
"We handle the animals as little as possible. We don't cuddle or pet them or even talk to them. It is imperative that they remain wild so they can have a successful release," she said. "We try to release the animals where they came from unless the area is unsafe, such as outdoor cats/dogs, construction, loss of habitat, etc. If we can't release them where they came from, we find a suitable habitat where we believe they will have the best chance at survival."
Costly endeavor
Angelo said the family has exhausted its own savings in the care and rehabilitation of these animals over the past three years and its only other income has been through the off-site educational programs they provide to schools, parks, 4-H groups, Scouts, and other nonprofit educational groups using their nonreleasable birds of prey.
"We were hoping to have an on-site education center where people can come to our facility to learn about native [Pennsylvania] wildlife and view some nonreleasable animals," she said.
"Our hospital, though, is not available for tours, as the wildlife needs its privacy to heal, and it is against state and federal laws to show rehabilitating wildlife to the public," she added.
"We are a nonprofit center dedicated to the care, rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wildlife in western Pa. At this time, we are taking in animals from 18 counties and are in desperate need of help to keep the facility running," she said.
Facing closure
"Sadly, due to the lack of donations to our center, we may have to close at the end of 2003," she said.
She noted that donations are tax deductible and can be mailed to SSWREC, 889 Farron-Surrena Road, Harrisville, Pa. 16038.
Credit card donations can be made through the Web site at www.stormpages.com/skyespirit/.
"Just click on the Paypal logo," she said.