This Week at Liberty

This time of year is always a flurry of activity at Liberty Wildlife. It is the Orphan Season! Enough said, right? Well actually, if you haven’t done this kind of work before, helping wildlife and the community in which they belong, then you might not truly understand why I say, “It’s orphan season” with a knowing, and somewhat exhausted sigh. To the caring individual who brings an animal to our hospital, this singular, suffering animal is everything. To many of us on the receiving end, it is one of 75 that came in today, all of whom we care about and are tracking carefully. That doesn’t make your animal any less important than the other 74, but it does hopefully explain some of our responses to you about your little one. Let me see if I can illustrate.

Babies are pretty much a spring and summer phenomenal here. Animals in the desert, in particular, are hard wired to have babies and raise families when the weather is cooperative, when food is abundant, and when conditions are positive for species to maintain. But conditions are not always so positive.

Busiest Wildlife Rescue in the Country

And Liberty Wildlife is here to help those little ones that have extenuating circumstances. If for many reasons, they aren’t able to remain with mom and dad and aren’t able to maintain on their own until they are self-sufficient, people like us are there to pick up the slack. That is what we and our many volunteers have signed up to do. And, we don’t usually have to do this alone.

But this year things have gotten a little out of control. Several other groups in the state who are licensed to do work like ours have had extenuating circumstances and haven’t been totally up to helping as much as before. So more of those babies are coming our way. We are more than happy to fill in the slack and we have. This does make some things a little more difficult.

Bringing Closure

We do understand more than you know how important a sense of “closure” is to those who go to the trouble and effort to help an animal in need. We understand that your children are invested in the creature who you rescued together. And we totally thank you for demonstrating to others, how important it is to have compassion, and to put yourself out for an anonymous wild animal that you will probably never see again. It frustrates us, as much as it likely frustrates you, to tell you that we can’t provide status reports on the baby you brought in. We get it!

Here’s the deal…. some days recently, because of the current situation, we take in from 60 to 100 animals in one day. If it is windy…and it has been…we know the line at the Intake Window can be staggering. If the temperatures are soaring, the intakes will follow. If the timing is all wrong for any number of conditions, the Intakes will reflect those conditions.

Considering all of this, our hospital has been slammed. So, when you call to check up on the animal you brought in, we understand your desire for information and closure. We also sadly have to tell you that it isn’t possible to give you what you need. For us to check on the baby quail you brought in two weeks ago would require taking someone off triage and caring for the newest animals arriving and working their ways through the process. In fact, providing updates on all admissions would create the need for a staff person dedicated solely to that task, and that just isn’t possible. One of our goals is to figure out how to computerize and automate some of this process, but we just aren’t there yet!

Best Care, Best Outcomes, for ALL in our Care

We are so grateful to each of you who take the time and energy to help an animal in need. We are so appreciative of those of you who understand our constraints in reporting. We are awed by those of you who get it and understand when we tell you the following key points about the animal you brought in. It is…

• Getting the best care available;
• Whenever possible put in with others of its species and age;
• Has a foster situation whenever possible;
• Will be returned to the wild in an appropriate safe place;
• Will be released at the best time to succeed;
• Will be evaluated for self-sufficiency like the parents would have done;
• Will be treated for what it needs to be a future successfully rehabilitated animal;
• Will more than likely become one of over 50+% released back into the wild….an impressive statistic by any measure;
• And, if the outcome isn’t release back to the wild, know that it received the best care and compassion at that most desperate hour.

Please know that our first and most immediate job is to help the animal you brought in. Sadly, that sometimes means leaving you without the closure you crave. It is out of necessity and nothing else.

Thank you for continuing to care and to understand. You are the critical first responder for care of that animal. And you are doing a great job. If you’d like to help in this next stage, sign up for our next volunteer orientation, and join our volunteer team!