Carol Case held the baby squirrel in the palm of her hand. The creature’s eyes were barely open. It did not squiggle much, perhaps thinking her rough hand was its mother. After 20 years as a state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Case has handled a host of wild animals, most of them injured or – as in this case – very young. In fact over the last year, she has rescued over a hundred such animals throughout North Jersey after people report such cases to their local police. Early in October, she recovered two baby opossums from a trash can in Hillsdale. The mother had apparently died. The child who found the creatures thought the babies were odd-looking cats.
It is the role of a state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator to care for injured, ill and orphaned wild animals, but always with the aim of returning them to the wild. Rehabilitators are called by municipal health officials or police. After they rescue animals, they don’t charge a fee. Corporate and other donations fund the program’s expenses.
Case came to Secaucus on Oct. 26 to release two teenage raccoons she had rescued from Carlstadt last April. The squirrel was a lucky find. Case always returns the animals to the wild, and generally in the area where they were first found.
“Most raccoons are born in the first week of April,” Case said as she worked open the latch of the carrier that contained the raccoons. The two teenage animals were already reaching through the wire mesh to feel for the latch themselves. Case said they can open many types of latches like escape artists, and containers often need types of latches that animals can’t undo.
Since their recovery as infants, the two raccoons were raised by hand, and fed a mixture of dog food, fruit, acorns, and even cooked chicken.
Their new home was something called a “soft cage,” a large wooden box with wire mesh sides that looked like an exaggerated hamster cage. The cage is designed so that the animals can come and go freely until they’ve readjusted to the wild enough to leave permanently. It was placed in the meadows of Secaucus. Staff from the Secaucus animal shelter went to the cage daily to care for the animals during the period before their return to the wild. The staff cleaned the cages and fed the animals.
The cages are constructed in conjunction with PSE&G to the specifications of wildlife rehabilitators in order to enhance the animals’ return to the wild. The swinging door allows the creatures to come and go from the cage. More natural roosts for the animals are installed nearby and are to become the animal’s home once they feel safe enough to leave the cages permanently. This generally takes three to seven days.
“Raccoons are fed at night,” Case said. “These supplement feeding while they get used to the wild again.”
The problem is, Case said, until the animals get used to the environment, they need support. If released without these cages, they would likely starve.
Hudson County has more cases of needy animals than other sections of the state because development has impacted their natural habitats more. Wild animals are often the victim of cars, trains, lawn mowers, electric wires, firearms, traps, kids throwing stones, woodcutters, picture windows, poisons, oil spills, and household pets.
Rehabilitators need to be licensed
The wildlife rehabilitators are trained and licensed by the New Jersey Department of Fish, Game and Wildlife. Anyone who wants to become a wildlife rehabilitator is required to earn a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, complete a one-year apprenticeship with a licensed rehabilitator, and undergo a testing process.
Case said she served a two-year apprenticeship with another licensed rehabilitator. She said a woman she worked with in the Girl Scouts had introduced her to the program. Over the last 20 years, she has handled a variety of creatures including raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, woodchucks, and chipmunks.
Retired now, Case worked in the past as an ex-ray technician. She conducted her rehabilitation efforts at her home in suburban New Jersey (the location of which she asked not to be printed) on a 100-by-100 foot lot that she calls a “backyard rehab.”
“I have an many cages as the town will let me have,” she said.
Surprisingly enough, Case didn’t have a lot of pets when she was a child, although her brother did have a duck.
“I do this for the love of it,” she said. “I feel someone has to do it, and very few people do.”
This requires a 24-hour a day, 365-day a year commitment.
“I’m always on call,” she said.
Some of the calls have been quite odd, such as someone claiming to have found a beaver in Jersey City.
“I knew it wasn’t a beaver when I went,” she said. “You don’t have ponds or lakes in Jersey City. It turned out to be a woodchuck.”
Case does not generally come to pick up animals. People bring the animals to her, largely from areas throughout North Jersey.
Not pets
Case made it clear that wildlife animals are not pets. Case wouldn’t raise them to be. In fact, it is against state law to keep native wild animals without a license. In New Jersey, specific regulations govern the care of injured and orphaned wildlife.
“For them to succeed in the wild, we have to feed them foods they might find in the wild,” Case said. “You can play with them up to a point, and then you have to put them outside. But babies need love just like infants.”
Case said each animal is examined, diagnosed and treated through an individually tailored program of veterinary care, hospital care, feeding, medicating, physical therapy, exercising and pre-release conditioning. Releases are planned for appropriate weather, season, habitat and location.
A variety of organizations helped her in her work, from Boy and Girl Scouts to for-profit organizations. One of the key players in the area has been PSE&G. Volunteers from the Palisades Electric Division and Hudson Generating Station of that utility have created a partnership with the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission and Secaucus animal advocates.
The utility company has been involved in numerous wildlife activities. Several years ago, the company helped install osprey nests throughout the Meadowlands. The volunteers have also built blue bird and swallow houses, bat houses, wood duck boxes, raccoon roosts, and wayside interpretive signs to educate the general public about local environmental issues.
“PSE&G’s role is very important with this initiative,” said PSE&G representative Richard Dwyer. “The department of Fish and Wildlife greatly depends upon the work of volunteers. It may be very difficult for some of the rehabilitators to find the time and the money needed to build cages. PSE&G has highly skilled tradesmen who are excited about helping.”
New Jersey’s wildlife rehabilitators cared for over 16,000 animals in 2000 and handled over 50,000 calls from persons seeking advice about them. The rehabilitators had a 61.5 percent successful release rate of wildlife back into their natural habitat. But some wild animals, of course, do not survive.
“When more resources are provided to help animal and birds, this wildlife can be cared for properly,” said New Jersey Meadowlands Commissioner Mike Gonnelli said. “Although wildlife rehabilitators have tremendous compassion to heal the animals, they desperately need both rehabilitation cages and soft-release cages. Thanks to the work of the PSE&G volunteers, we’ll be able to help more animals heal and grow and be free once more. Hopefully, more volunteers will get involved. We’re really glad to know there are caring volunteers out there.”
Mayor Dennis Elwell said that Secaucus is particularly well poised to handle the program, since it already has an active animal control program in place, and a staff of employees led by Al McClure, the Secaucus animal control officer.
“We’re very happy that PSE&G has coupled with the town to do this,” Elwell said. “Nature is a very important part of our lives.”