Saving Wildlife Saves Us

Tri County Wildlife Care serves Amador, Calaveras and San Joaquin counties and takes calls at all hours. The first call on 10/5/17 came in at 2 a.m. from Walmart in Lodi with a report of a seagull with a broken wing.

Employees observed people kicking the bird in the parking lot and ran to rescue it. They got a large box, pulled a blanket and even fed the bird fish. A kind young man took the bird home and indicated that his parents would assist him in getting the bird into our care.

It was clear that the Walmart sta ff had a chain of people who were so caring that they took the time to rescue the bird from cruel people. Harassing and harming wildlife is not only cruel, it is illegal. Fortunately, kindness prevailed and only time will tell if this bird will return to the wild. At 8 a.m. we received a call that a turkey was injured after it had been chased and kicked by students at a local school. Transport volunteer, Donna retrieved the turkey which died shortly after she took it into our care.

Needless to say, we were horrified to have two instances of birds being mistreated by humans. There is a lesson here for everyone who has children and it is that kindness matters to all living creatures.

Several years ago a local rancher killed numerous coyotes and hung their carcasses on his fence. It wasn’t long before the angry calls began to come in to our phones and the Amador County Chamber of Commerce. We convinced the rancher to pull the coyotes down, but the damage to the balance of nature had been done. Within a few months, the neighboring property owner complained that the ground squirrels were overwhelming. This was a direct result of the killing of the coyotes. We must protect our pets and livestock and allow wildlife to keep the predator prey balance.

We believe all lives are precious and hope that when children view others behaving badly that they will speak up to prevent incidents like this. Our lesson is always the same and it is “SAVING WILDLIFE SAVES US”.

Biodiversity is essential to a healthy ecosystem which provides the clean air and water we all need to survive. Our lives are tied up with wildlife and our patients are sentinels for what is occurring around us.

When we see West Nile in the birds, we see it with our population too. When birds are endangered, it is often due to chemical use which is harmful to us as well.

Our group has many Wildlife ambassadors which are non-releaseable critters. We love sharing them so that people can see the beauty of our wildlife neighbors up close. Our presentations are free and we are happy to customize our lessons for any age or group.

Tri County Wildlife Care is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 and dedicated to the rescue and release of local wildlife. We work with the public to live in balance with nature and envision a world where people and wildlife thrive together. For more information or assistance, please call 209-283-3245 or visit www.pawspartners.org.

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