I started the day off working in the Miscellaneous room. I helped weigh and feed the injured birds. I cleaned cages and also assisted in moving the squirrels into new, clean cages. This took a few hours. One of the squirrels had been kept as a pet for a year and was now wary of people and very overweight. It made me sad to think that someone's ignorance affected this squirrel's life so much. It would be a struggle to ever release it in to the wild again. I wish people thought about consequences their actions have on animals more.
After this, I worked on diets for all the residents. This took awhile because we had less help than usual. In addition, we got a lot of new babies, including 8 baby bunnies. I weighed them all and made an enclosure for them. They are so precious but I know how much work they are to take care of. They must be tube fed for at least the next few weeks.
I really love working at the Wildlife Preserve and it is both sad and incredible to see the needs of the animals and the effect that humans have on them.
Larn,
ReplyDeletePreach to the choir sista, as much as I sympathize with people coddling cute animals that are wild, people need to realize that they are independent animals who can survive in the wild without people. I know a ton of people who find frogs/turtles/squirrels/rabbits and think that they know what's best for the animal and attempt to feed it whatever yahoo answers deems right and even with a semi-accurate diet, the animal's chances of surviving decrease dramatically. I really wish that more people can appreciate wildlife from a distance and it saddens me that people feel the need to capture perfectly healthy animals for purely their own entertainment. I really like what you guys are doing with the injured animals though, and I hope that you guys let the visitors know that the animals held are in need of human intervention and make them aware of the consequences of taking in healthy animals.