Okay, so let’s just start with the rants and get ‘em out of the way, ‘cause you KNOW when I’m in rant mode I’m gonna have my say. The only question is which soapbox to hop on first…
Let’s start with this lovely white dove. Isn’t she a beauty?
Let’s start with this lovely white dove. Isn’t she a beauty?
Taken last month, when she first came in.
She's currently in a full molt, so she's a bit scruffy!
You know how she ended up at LWR? A nice couple found her after she’d been released at either a wedding or a funeral and left to her fate. Luckily for her, this couple searched until they found LWR. I don’t normally take in nonreleasable nonnative birds, but in her case I made an exception. How do I know she’s nonnative? Because it’s illegal to release native white doves into the wild like this, so unscrupulous, money-grubbing jackasses raise white African ring-necked doves—NOT the same as Eurasian collared doves that, while also nonnative, have become “naturalized” in the wild—and then they advertise that they provide them for release at weddings, funerals, and other commemorative events.
Folks, these doves are raised in captivity JUST to be released at such events. They have NO survival skills; they are NOT homing pigeons, so they’re not gonna fly back home after a release. You know what they ARE gonna do? Become hawk or owl food pretty damn quickly, as their white color might as well be a flashing neon “eat me” sign. That would be their kindest fate, actually, because the alternative is that they’ll starve to death because, having been raised in captivity, they have NO idea how to forage for food.
Y’all know how I feel about balloon releases for such events—they’re environmentally damaging and I cannot understand why anyone would want to begin their married lives or honor the memory of a deceased friend or loved one by causing wildlife deaths hundreds of miles away. Maybe because they don’t see the damage they cause, they can pretend it never happened. I can’t. And the same philosophy applies to releasing CAPTIVE-RAISED birds, totally unprepared for life in the wild—honestly, you wanna start your marriage or honor a deceased loved one or friend by killing an innocent, gentle dove? What kind of monster would do that?
While I’m generally against further government interference in our lives, this is one instance where I say if people are too damn stupid or uncaring to stop balloon releases and white dove releases on their own, we need local/state/national ordinances to put an end to these horrific practices.
And then we have the ignoramuses who “rescue” birds from the road and then don’t seek help for them for days or weeks—until they get bored with them; the novelty wears off. Case in point: this gorgeous first-year red-tailed hawk who was held for FIVE DAYS in a disgustingly rusty, shabby homemade wire cage, until the cretin who found him tried to release him and—surprise, surprise—the bird couldn’t fly. THEN he dumped him at a dog rescue in a neighboring county, and thanks to a stalwart volunteer transporter, he made his way to LWR—in the rickety, rusty, sorry excuse for a cage he’d been in for FIVE DAYS.
Folks, these doves are raised in captivity JUST to be released at such events. They have NO survival skills; they are NOT homing pigeons, so they’re not gonna fly back home after a release. You know what they ARE gonna do? Become hawk or owl food pretty damn quickly, as their white color might as well be a flashing neon “eat me” sign. That would be their kindest fate, actually, because the alternative is that they’ll starve to death because, having been raised in captivity, they have NO idea how to forage for food.
Y’all know how I feel about balloon releases for such events—they’re environmentally damaging and I cannot understand why anyone would want to begin their married lives or honor the memory of a deceased friend or loved one by causing wildlife deaths hundreds of miles away. Maybe because they don’t see the damage they cause, they can pretend it never happened. I can’t. And the same philosophy applies to releasing CAPTIVE-RAISED birds, totally unprepared for life in the wild—honestly, you wanna start your marriage or honor a deceased loved one or friend by killing an innocent, gentle dove? What kind of monster would do that?
While I’m generally against further government interference in our lives, this is one instance where I say if people are too damn stupid or uncaring to stop balloon releases and white dove releases on their own, we need local/state/national ordinances to put an end to these horrific practices.
And then we have the ignoramuses who “rescue” birds from the road and then don’t seek help for them for days or weeks—until they get bored with them; the novelty wears off. Case in point: this gorgeous first-year red-tailed hawk who was held for FIVE DAYS in a disgustingly rusty, shabby homemade wire cage, until the cretin who found him tried to release him and—surprise, surprise—the bird couldn’t fly. THEN he dumped him at a dog rescue in a neighboring county, and thanks to a stalwart volunteer transporter, he made his way to LWR—in the rickety, rusty, sorry excuse for a cage he’d been in for FIVE DAYS.
You won’t convince me the man didn’t know what he’d done was illegal, as he made no attempt to contact a licensed rehabber, and I’m not thrilled that the dog rescue—who have the LWR contact information—didn’t just refer him directly to LWR. I mean, does a red-tail LOOK like a damn dog???
His tail feathers are frayed on the ends; his wing feathers are just before being stripped on the ends, and he has a small puncture wound on his foot, probably from one of those rusty screws, that I’m treating in hopes of preventing bumblefoot. We’ll see. And yes, ALL the feather damage and the foot injury COULD have been avoided if he’d been brought to LWR to begin with, instead of dumped in an inappropriate cage and used for “show and tell” with the neighbors for five friggin’ days.
And finally—last rant of the day—just today LWR received a call from Canada. The caller had a common nighthawk she’d raised illegally and wanted information on how to release the bird; it seemed the wildlife rehabbers she talked with in Canada mentioned euthanasia. I have highly skilled colleagues at Swift Care Ontario, and nighthawks are among the birds they specialize in, so I gave her their contact information. She’d previously called them; they were the agency that mentioned euthanasia—and the more she told me, the more I agreed, without even seeing the bird—that they were probably right: the bird would require euthanasia.
Why? Lessee…raised illegally on a crap diet, so we more than likely have severe nutritional deficiencies. The caller said the bird would eat from her hand—which a properly raised nighthawk would NOT do—but made no mention that it could even fly. It’s awfully late in migration, especially for birds flying south from Canada. Nighthawks—all aerial insectivores, really—don’t overwinter well and so the bird will likely die during the winter. And here’s the kicker—she hadn’t even TAKEN the bird to Swift Care Ontario so they could evaluate it and make the best decision for the bird.
I stressed that she needed to get the bird to them ASAP; she hedged. They have her contact information now, but I’m not hopeful they’ll ever see the bird. Instead, it will probably suffer a prolonged, agonizing death, either from nutritional deficiencies or from stress from an untrained individual attempting to overwinter it.
This is all down to EGO, pure and simple, people. I submit that if that caller truly cared about the fate of that nighthawk, she would have immediately sought a licensed rehabber when she found it—and you will NOT convince me that in all her Internet research she didn’t come across at least ONE site that mentioned it was illegal to possess wildlife without a permit. And rather than deal with licensed rehabbers in her own country, she reaches out to LWR, in the US? Yeah, she knew all along what she was doing was illegal; she just didn’t care because her ego was being fed by having the bird—and sadly, he will pay the price for her egotistical actions.
Folks, licensed rehabbers have widespread networks of colleagues. We talk. We exchange best practices, rants and general information—and yes, we give each other a heads-up when some oaf like this comes along, and we’re not above reporting people to state wildlife agencies outside our own state. I did earlier this year, when some fool in Nevada called me about waterfowl he had illegally and admitted to me he routinely took in wild birds without a permit. As soon as I hung up with him, I was on the phone with the Nevada game and fish people to report him. Keep those facts in mind if you’re ever tempted to keep wildlife illegally.
Now on to more pleasant topics: the screech is still reluctant to fly the coop, and we may have to do some encouraging here, as I now have three larger raptors who each need their turn in the raptor flight.
His tail feathers are frayed on the ends; his wing feathers are just before being stripped on the ends, and he has a small puncture wound on his foot, probably from one of those rusty screws, that I’m treating in hopes of preventing bumblefoot. We’ll see. And yes, ALL the feather damage and the foot injury COULD have been avoided if he’d been brought to LWR to begin with, instead of dumped in an inappropriate cage and used for “show and tell” with the neighbors for five friggin’ days.
And finally—last rant of the day—just today LWR received a call from Canada. The caller had a common nighthawk she’d raised illegally and wanted information on how to release the bird; it seemed the wildlife rehabbers she talked with in Canada mentioned euthanasia. I have highly skilled colleagues at Swift Care Ontario, and nighthawks are among the birds they specialize in, so I gave her their contact information. She’d previously called them; they were the agency that mentioned euthanasia—and the more she told me, the more I agreed, without even seeing the bird—that they were probably right: the bird would require euthanasia.
Why? Lessee…raised illegally on a crap diet, so we more than likely have severe nutritional deficiencies. The caller said the bird would eat from her hand—which a properly raised nighthawk would NOT do—but made no mention that it could even fly. It’s awfully late in migration, especially for birds flying south from Canada. Nighthawks—all aerial insectivores, really—don’t overwinter well and so the bird will likely die during the winter. And here’s the kicker—she hadn’t even TAKEN the bird to Swift Care Ontario so they could evaluate it and make the best decision for the bird.
I stressed that she needed to get the bird to them ASAP; she hedged. They have her contact information now, but I’m not hopeful they’ll ever see the bird. Instead, it will probably suffer a prolonged, agonizing death, either from nutritional deficiencies or from stress from an untrained individual attempting to overwinter it.
This is all down to EGO, pure and simple, people. I submit that if that caller truly cared about the fate of that nighthawk, she would have immediately sought a licensed rehabber when she found it—and you will NOT convince me that in all her Internet research she didn’t come across at least ONE site that mentioned it was illegal to possess wildlife without a permit. And rather than deal with licensed rehabbers in her own country, she reaches out to LWR, in the US? Yeah, she knew all along what she was doing was illegal; she just didn’t care because her ego was being fed by having the bird—and sadly, he will pay the price for her egotistical actions.
Folks, licensed rehabbers have widespread networks of colleagues. We talk. We exchange best practices, rants and general information—and yes, we give each other a heads-up when some oaf like this comes along, and we’re not above reporting people to state wildlife agencies outside our own state. I did earlier this year, when some fool in Nevada called me about waterfowl he had illegally and admitted to me he routinely took in wild birds without a permit. As soon as I hung up with him, I was on the phone with the Nevada game and fish people to report him. Keep those facts in mind if you’re ever tempted to keep wildlife illegally.
Now on to more pleasant topics: the screech is still reluctant to fly the coop, and we may have to do some encouraging here, as I now have three larger raptors who each need their turn in the raptor flight.
The Coop and the barred owl are awaiting their turn in the raptor flight, as is the red-tail from the rant above.
And ending with a dose of cuteness, we have the flyer, who’s still in the “eat and pass out” stage. Wouldn’t we all like to emulate him on that?
And ending with a dose of cuteness, we have the flyer, who’s still in the “eat and pass out” stage. Wouldn’t we all like to emulate him on that?
He passes out immediately after feeding!
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