First, please excuse typos and grammer and spelling errors here. I am writing this fast to get back to work with the birds. Things are a bit crazy right now. you will read why in this blog. It has been a harsh few weeks at the refuge, but it has also been good in other ways.
First the good news. We got a donation of $2500, which has been and is going to several uses for the refuge. So far it has bought food, fixed the rescue van, (and of course bought gas), helped us get materials, and more. It has been wonderful for us to have money to pay all the things we have to.
To cut expenses and make that money go further, we are making a change in our services. in some cases, we will be having local animal control officers pick up the birds instead of us directly. Even with this donation, we can not pay out over $1000 for gas every month we simply do not have that much income. We havearranged drop off areas for people who have found a raptor; including Avian and Exotic Animal Care, and, as they have in the past, the After Hours Emergency Clinic on Vick drive. We will still care for the birds, but with the current economy and the quantity of birds we are getting, we can not afford the time away from our hospital or the cost of gas for all the rescue calls we are getting. We will still go out on rescues when we can, but the majority will be instructing people how and where to get help and then caring for the birds after.
Now for the the very bad news. I've been holding off talking about it until I knew what happened, and now I do. We have a pair of very tough and sneaky raccoons who have been tearing up our caging. We have had plywood with holes ripped into it, and we have had metal wire ripped from the nails holding it onto the wood. These guys are tough and vicious.
Last week they got in and killed our 2 eastern screech owls Fireball and Furbee. I still can not find how they got into the cage, so I am tearing it down and rebuilding the entire thing. in the mean time our remaining screech owl , Blinky the western screech is in a cage inside our hospital where it is safe.
Last night I was working late (1am) when I heard thumping noises in the barred owls cage. I went out and found 2 raccoons inside the cage with Scowl and Klik-Klak, our barred owls. While barred owls and raccoons may appear similar in size, a barred owl weighs less than 2 pounds. Against an 8-10 pound raccoon they have no chance.
I got my 22 rifle with the "ratshot" bullets and shot each raccon, making them run off through the hole they had ripped in the cage. Before you say how mean that is, there are 2 things to remember. 1- the .22 ratshot did not and could not kill a raccoon, it just hurts like hell. and 2-They killed animals I am sworn to protect. I consider this their one and only warning if they come again I will kill them and cut them up and feed them to the birds.
This is not the first time w have had issues with raccoons. Before we changed to raptors only, we had constant problems with them. Since changing we had only one series of incidents 4 years ago. At that time, we lost a kestrel and 4 raccoons attacked our red tails Freya and Houdini. (another case of me removing the birds for their safety) They tried to attack the ferruginous hawk we had (Chaps), but the hawk killed one, and according to the blood in the cage, hurt the other(s).
These recent attacks are by far the worst case. We have had 5 cages damaged to become unusable by them. They even tried to get into the inside cage where Beanca sleeps. That area, however, is ultra-secure. Now we have lost 2 birds and 5 usable cages and have damage to 4 morcages from thier attempts.
I have decided to change policy a bit and allow newer volunteers to come to the refuge to help us rebuild. And this is truly a rebuild, we have to remake teh cages with a different strategy in mind. I am having workdays the next few Sundays from 1pm - 4pm, So, if you want to volunteer for the refuge, email me at awrefuge@aol.com or call me at the refuge number (you will likely have to leave a message) 919-229-8449.
We do not generally let people come to the refuge because people are dangerous to the birds. CRC had an eagle stolen from them a few years back, and one of our board members had a falcon stolen from his place. Additionally we are told by falconers and others about people who go and shoot birds in outdoor cages; some for sport / mischief, and some because they are eco-terrorists. In this case, however, we are going to have to trust you, our supporters, to come and NOT share our location or information with anyone, because our birds need their cages to be in good safe order.
There it is. An entirely new phase in our operation... a new begining. I hope you, our supporters and friends, will join us for this.
