Good Morning Facebook Friends, Because we get asked often why you see more pictures of some animals than others, I thought I’d explain once to everybody and hope you all understand. Every animal that comes to us for rehabilitation, with the exception of songbirds, has an initial photo put on this page. This is how we help you to keep track of an animal that you have sent here. If you later have questions about an animal that you sent to us, you are able to go back to that picture and ask and facebook will alert us so we can answer. This helps us know which animal you are inquiring about because then we have the date and species and why it is here. With songbirds, for parts of the year we are taking in up to 20 a day, it would honestly be impossible for us to do everything else AND post pictures of every songbird, and with that many a day coming in, species and date doesn’t always help us know which one. After this initial picture, for those animals that will go back into the wild, you won’t see many, if any other pictures until they are leaving. The reason for this is that it is not good for wild animals to trust humans. They need a healthy fear of humans, which most will develop naturally if allowed to do so, to be successful in the wild. A crow that may land on humans or a squirrel that runs up a human leg are definitely in danger from humans who don’t realize that these animals are behaving strangely because they weren’t raised properly. This is also why, when people post “cute” little stories to this page that show wild animals, especially those that it is stated will be returned to the wild, doing things that a pet, not a wild animal, would do, we delete those stories from our page. We really do not want to encourage more people to think that they can take a wild animal in, raise it, treat it like a pet and then release it into the wild safely. This is why we continually say that there is more to rehabilitation than simply feeding. A big part of it is knowing when to stop treating the animal like a baby and allow them to develop their natural fears. And this stage is different with every species. With some it starts right away, others need a bit of time, knowing which need what comes with time, experience and networking with other rehabbers. Many ask if this makes us sad, that they end up not really liking us. The answer is absolutely not. We know, once they show those first signs of not trusting us, that we have done what we are supposed to do (if not always what we want to do), in order for this animal to be successful through his/her life. The other question we often get is, “will they come back and visit you”. Again the answer is NO. if we did our “job” properly, these animals won’t look back once they are wild. And we don’t want them to, we want them to get out there and do what they were intended to do. Wildlife rehabilitation isn’t about how the humans feel, or the cute photo opportunities, it is about ensuring that these animals are successful once they are out and on their own. Have a beautiful day all!
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 14:55:30 +0000
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