No matter where you call home in our lovely region, one of the best reasons to be thankful for living here is our wildlife. Cottontails, grey squirrels and ibises populate our lawns. At any body of water, little blue herons wade beside great egrets. Red-shouldered hawks patrol the skies. Gopher tortoises burrow in our parks, coyotes run across our golf courses and sandhill cranes strut through our parking lots like they own the place.
But, of course, they don’t. As development continues, animals and people come into conflict. Fishing line snares all manner of birds and aquatic mammals. Golf balls are painful projectiles to roseate spoonbills. And above all else, cars maim our animal friends without regard to feather, shell or fur.
Fortunately, the folks at the Wildlife Center of Venice are here to help. According to the Wildlife Center’s director of operations, Pamela DeFouw, and treasurer, Sandi Raasch, the nonprofit was founded to serve a regional need and is celebrating its 15th year with a $650,000 capital campaign to expand its facilities.
“We have four full- and part-time staff and 125 volunteers,” Pamela explains. “Our staff includes rehabilitators who assist and care for the injured animals. We work with area vets, who donate their time or charge a very low rate. We also work closely with other animal services, such as Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Sheriff’s Animal Services. Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, release. We really want these animals to go home where they were found. They have the best chance for survival in the territory they know, where they may have a mate, burrow or nest.”
Last year, the Center rehabilitated more than 5,000 wild animals, including nearly 1,000 cottontails. Bobcats, foxes, coyotes and all types of raptors are just the beginning of the wildlife the Center has rescued.
Part of the Center’s work is education, raising awareness about how the public can avoid injuring animals, such as cleaning up fishing line, never throwing fileted sheepshead carcasses back into the water where they can puncture pelicans’ throats, helping turtles finishing crossing roads in the direction they were already going (taking a turtle back where it came from will just make it cross the road yet again), understanding that fireworks can cause adults to flee a nest, and not picking up what might at first glance seem like orphaned animals.
“If people find a wounded or orphaned animal, they should first call us,” Pamela explains. “Our dispatcher will ask a series of questions. People find smaller rabbits and believe they’re orphans. But rabbits are on their own just 21 days after birth and the size of a tennis ball. People see baby birds hopping on the ground and think they’re abandoned. But it’s just fledging season. The parents are above, still taking care of them. Sometimes we have to do some educating about which animals need rescue.”
When an injured animal is found, the public can bring them to the center or trained volunteers will be dispatched. The public should never try to rescue animals that could be rabies vectors like raccoons, skunks or bats, nor animals that can panic and cause injuries like raptors or sandhill cranes.
“We need monetary donations, food for the animals and volunteers,” Sandi says.“ But we are not a zoo and don’t accept visitors. We try to keep these animals as wild as possible. There is very little human interaction with them as they are rehabilitating. Remaining wild gives them the best chances of survival.”
“The more people know about the animals we live among,” Pamela adds, “the better these relationships will be. We get calls every day about wildlife removal, which we don’t do. This is their home, and we’re fortunate to have the diversity of wildlife that we do.”
Visit the center’s website at WildlifeCenterOfVenice.org for further information and to donate.
925 N. Jackson Road, Venice | 941.484.9657