Megan Mosby
Executive Director
Rock stars—all of you. Team players—all of you. Angels of Mercy—all of you!
I watch as people line up at the Intake Window masked and socially distant. Each of them holding a container of some sort. Each of them directed to us by the Hotline who when necessary dispatches Rescue Volunteers to the site or when possible directs the Public to our facility.
I am not able or even close to understanding the huge numbers that I am seeing. This past week starting on Tuesday, we received the following: Tuesday 101, Wednesday 115, Thursday 103, Friday 139, Saturday 200, Sunday 169 for a total of 827 different animals in 6 days.
If you aren’t in the business of rehabilitating wildlife, these numbers might not get your attention. For those of us who have done this for almost 40 years the number is jaw dropping.
What I want to describe for you is all of the steps involved for each little animal brought in to us…just for intake…just to get the ball rolling. I am not talking about the long process of rehabilitating for release or placement, just intake…the ‘right now’ of the process.
It starts with you, a caring public. Somehow, sometime, somewhere you came across an animal in need. Maybe you have been watching these babies from your kitchen window for weeks; maybe you found a critter on your morning walk, maybe your kitty brought you a present—whatever the scenario, you need help. You call around or go on line, if it is your first time, and get our name and the Hotline number. If this isn’t your first time, you know the drill.
It could be a difficult rescue and the Hotline takes over to dispatch a Rescue Volunteer. One way or another the animal ends up at the Intake Window where action resumes.
The Intake Volunteer gets the animal situated in Triage after getting written information regarding the animal that will assist in setting a rehab protocol and will also follow it through the process. This critical information ends up on our annual report to USFWS and AZ G&F.
If a donation is made to help care for the animal brought in, forms are filled out documenting that to satisfy our accounting department and our annual audit.
The Animal Care Coordinator and the Daily Care Coordinator along with the Orphan Care Coordinators then take over. A group of volunteers from each of the areas begins the process of evaluating the animals and with a veterinarian, prescribes the protocol for the care and treatment of each individual animal. The addition of each new patient will necessitate action with the current critters in the hospital…room must be made.
So, Tuesday to Sunday that process happened 827 times between 8 am and 6 pm or until the line was gone (well not counting the finding and calling part) and appears to be happening at the same pace today.
As of 8 a.m. on Monday, we were a total of 1431 animals taken in ahead of the same time last year. WOW!!
And, you know what? We can handle it because of the incredible team that we have…no complaints, no unfilled shifts…someone steps in or stays longer when needed providing a unified approach to the situation at hand.
If that weren’t enough, the public is stepping up to the plate and providing badly needed donations to help pay for the care of the animals they rescued. It is a demanding time to be in the business.
This incredible success is because the staff and volunteers not to mention the public are all Rock Stars, Team Players and Angels of Mercy. Every one of you who is part of this process.
Rock Stars, one and all. And, I thank all of you. Mother Nature is smiling too.
This Week @ Liberty – June 02, 2020
As pointed out above, the numbers are literally staggering: We have taken in 505 animals in the last three days. That’s almost 1,500 since the last blog update two weeks ago, and is 1,431 more than this date last year. On Saturday, our intake total was 199, and most of those came in before the Haboob struck. The volunteers working the intake window are doing a superlative job keeping up with the lines constantly forming, and the Med Services team and the Orphan Care folks are all going above and beyond what is asked of them. Hopefully this level of activity will abate, at least slightly, and we will somehow get though the next six weeks. (Wearing face masks doesn’t make the tasks any easier…!) My hat is off to all Liberty volunteers who were here last weekend and didn’t give up when the arrivals just didn’t stop.
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One of the busiest places this time of year is Orphan Care. The majority of what we take in are smaller “back yard” birds who either fall from the nest or leave early for some other reason (wind storm, predator attack, excessive heat, etc.) The tiny babies are examined for traumatic damage, then fed by hand in Orphan Care until they are able to feed themselves, then go outside with others of their species. When they are old enough, they are released to the wild to become what they are intended to be: free flying denizens of the Arizona skies.
Look for 10 pictures
People always ask, “Do you just do birds?” and obviously, the answer is we take in anything that’s native to Arizona. That includes the baby coyote that arrived recently, lots of cottontail bunnies, an assortment of bats, and even large Colorado River toads. The baby coyote was stabilized and transported to South West Wildlife. The bunnies are treated in house until old enough to release. The really tiny babies require special knowledge and care which is taught by more experienced bunny volunteers. We usually outsource the bats to Rebecca Moffat for assessment, treatment, and eventual release. The toad, a rare visitor to Liberty, is the largest species of toad in Arizona and one of the largest in North America. This toxic skinned amphibian, sometimes referred to as a “Sonoran Desert Toad”, is still in treatment.
Look for 6 pictures
The Tuesday Vet Night action saw several birds treated including a large gosling orphan and the standard group of owls, hawks, and falcons. Dr. Lapa treated the wing of an injured adult barn owl plus an adult great horned owl who got to outside. A couple of kestrels were treated for various injuries and were treated, as usual, for possible canker. AZGFD brought down an adult Swainson’s hawk presenting signs of possible electrical injury. As is usual with electric involvement, we play a waiting game to see how extensive the damage is as time goes by. A little burrowing owl was given a splint which was custom cut by Jan to fit his injured leg. Plus, a little baby grackle was found to have some debris, possibly hair, from the nest wrapped tightly around his foot, constricting the blood supply. Usually we see this from involvement with fishing line. In this case, he will probably have to adapt to life without that foot.
In addition, a young barn owl came in after being rescued from the chimney of an old house. Another sibling was also stuck in the chimney but didn’t recover from the trauma. Both young owls were extremely emaciated and covered with soot.
Look for 10 pictures
A little gray fox came in last week. He had been found near his dead mother in an electrical sub-station covered in some unknown chemical substance which was exceedingly sticky. Otherwise uninjured, he was emaciated and could not stand up due to the sticky goop which effectively glued him to his surroundings. Nothing we usually use seemed to work: Dawn detergent, chinchilla dust, even some of the more powerful chemical solvents – nothing took it off. On Saturday, Dr. Lamb suggested one last thing: Country Crock margarine. It seems this product has some ingredient which provides the solvent action that removes industrial glop. I went to Fry’s and got a small tub which was used to slather him up and it actually seemed to work! Before he licked it off (!), he was again bathed and the sludge began to come off. I might be taking this off of my breakfast table now…
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If you remember the last TW@L update, we told you about a desert that was attacked by a dog. His front leg was severely injured and he was being treated but it was determined that the leg had to be amputated. Last week, Dr. Scagnelli performed the surgery to move the damaged limb and the big guy appears to be doing much better now. It is always amazing to see how animals adapt surprisingly quickly to things that we think will affect them adversely.
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Posted by Terry Stevens
Operations Director