Pulse Magazine
Spring 2017
Reuse. Reread. Recycle
Reparations: Long Islanders Pitch In
For Animal Conservation
Photo Courtsy of The Long Island Aquarium
By Laura Bellini
“The dangerous situation animals find themselves in almost always has to do with [humans]. They’re cutting down trees, dogs get out, cats get out, they hit animals with their cars,” said Lori Ketchum, director of the Save the Animals Rescue Foundation. “It’s always somehow human related. Rarely is it an act of nature.”
A number of organizations are at work to preserve Long Island’s wildlife, and the culprit of their injuries and issues seem to come down to a common cause: humans. And it’s not just the Long Island area that is feeling this kind of negative human impact.
The Save the Animals Rescue Foundation, or STAR Foundation, located in Middle Island, NY has a mission to “mitigate the damage done to the wildlife through the progress of humans.” Lori Ketchum is the director of 25 volunteers that are working toward this goal.
“We keep building, tearing down woods, destroying habitats, putting up fences, putting garbage out that’s dangerous to animals. Pretty much everything we do is causing an issue for our local wildlife,” said Ketchum.
The STAR Foundation receives calls concerning local wildlife in dangerous situations, most often if they are abandoned, injured or orphaned. Many times, the facility will attempt to direct the people who find them to take action on their own in a way that is safe for both the human and the animal.
“We just had a baby squirrel that was found on the ground. It was cold and there was a nest above it, so we talked the people who found the squirrel through how to warm it, put it back out, and fortunately the mom came back out and got it,” said Ketchum.
Other times, it takes more of a hands-on approach from the foundation to protect these wild animals.
“Another squirrel showed up on the same driveway. Ice cold, it had rained. We don’t know if it’s the same one, or if the nest is falling apart and the babies are falling out, or if there’s an animal like a crow attacking the nest, but now the baby is in serious need of help,” said Ketchum.
The STAR Foundation works year-round in order to ensure the safety of animals and wildlife in the area. Although the work is hard, Ketchum says that this is her life’s passion.
Photo Courtsy of The Long Island Aquarium
“Any time that I feel like I’m helping ease the suffering or helping an animal have a chance to have more life, that’s rewarding. It’s very rewarding,” said Ketchum.
Another organization working toward a similar mission is Volunteers for Wildlife, Wildlife Hospital and Rescue Center, located in Locust Valley, NY. This non-profit animal hospital was founded in 1982, and was the first wild animal hospital on Long Island. The hospital has about 40 volunteers.
Lauren Schulz is the Wildlife Center Supervisor and has worked for the facility for nine years. In that time, she has worked closely with wildlife rehabilitation.
“We have a wildlife hotline, a number that people can call if they find an injured animal. Most people when they find an animal don’t know what to do, so their first step may be to call the veterinarian, and then they’re surprised to hear they don’t necessarily treat wildlife,” said Schulz.
The Volunteers for Wildlife receives 6,000 calls a year about injured animals from people around the Island, although Schulz says that sometimes it’s not necessarily an injured animal, but an opportunity to teach people to coexist with wildlife.
“We find on Long Island that the vast majority of the public is very uneducated about animals. In one way there is a direct impact of just teaching people what’s in their backyard, and teaching a mutual respect for the animals, and to get rid of myths about animals that are completely untrue,” said Schulz.
Land animals are not the only ones being harmed by human impact. The Long Island Aquarium, located in Riverhead, NY, works to conserve marine life from all around the country by creating an environment that is safe and similar to what the animals are accustomed to.
The Long Island Aquarium has over 100 different species of marine life in general, and eight different species of mammals, including four harbor seals, a grey seal, California sea lions, North American river otters, Japanese snow monkeys, geoffroy marmosets, porcupines and nectar bats.
Jenna Mercurio, animal trainer and zookeeper at the aquarium, works closely with these animals on a daily basis, and tells visitors the stories of how animals were saved and brought to the aquarium.
“Grey Beauty, our grey seal, was a rescue,” said Mercurio. “She’s actually completely blind, so she wouldn’t be able to survive out in the wild. So she needed a permanent home at a facility like ours.”
Human and outside causes like pollution, overfishing and global warming have had a negative impact on some of the animals at the facility. Most notably is the story of Nila, a California sea lion who is unable to live on her own in the wild.
“We have Nila because of the massive stranding crisis of sea lions in California, mainly due to this climate change or the warmer ocean temperatures which are pushing their food source away from the coast,” said Mercurio.
According to Mercurio, for the past seven years in California there has been a UME, or an unusual mortality event. There are an unusual amount of sea lion pups dying.
“The schooling fish that the mother sea lions would use to nurture themselves in order to get milk producing to their pups, as well as the pups learning how to eat for themselves, just can’t because the fish are too far out.”
Nila was almost one of those pups, and was rescued by a local rehabilitation center. Some pups, after being returned to a healthy weight, were able to be returned to the wild, but Nila was not so lucky.
Mercurio says that Nila was exhibiting behaviors that would leave her unable to survive on her own in the wild. When in the presence of another sea lion, she would drop the fish that was given to her. She was unwilling to fight for an already limited amount of food supplies.
Nila was deemed non-releasable by the government and transported to the Long Island Aquarium, where she is fed regularly and taken care of. Mercurio also believes that Nila is an excellent aide when it comes to animal conservation education.
Photo Courtsy of The Long Island Aquarium
“With our sea lion presentations, we go into Nila’s story and how we acquired her and rescued her. Then we go into the story of why she needed to be rescued. Through actually seeing Nila and people actually seeing these animals, I think the message sticks well with them,” said Mercurio. “Maybe they can take that message and say something like ‘maybe I can do something, like eating sustainable seafood that can help with overfishing, because I saw Nila in the show.’”
Environmental and animal conservation education is an aspect that is constant in each of these facilities. The Volunteers for Wildlife Animal Hospital also uses some of their animals to educate the general public on how to coexist peacefully with these creatures.
“We do outreach education. So we have animals like the ones outside that are used to go to schools and scout troops and libraries to teach people a little bit more about the animals in their own backyard, because everybody knows about zoo animals and they don’t really know what lives in our space here,” said Schulz. “The goal of the program is to foster a little bit of appreciation in the public for local wildlife so people will make better decisions.”
Schulz believes that many people do not harm animals intentionally through their actions, and that by educating, explaining and talking through the common mistakes that people make, wild animal injuries and deaths could be prevented in the future.
Schulz also explained the importance of starting education early.
“We’re hoping that starting with a younger generation, if young people have exposure to our local wildlife and learn about them and know that these animals aren’t scary and aren’t going to harm us, they will learn this mutual respect that will continue with generations to come.”
These facilities that conserve wildlife believe that positive human impact can save local and non-local wildlife. These changes can be made through small steps in daily routine.
“Take the animals into consideration. Don’t set up situations that are going to cause risks to animals. Garbage pails should have lids, keep dogs on leashes, don’t leave cats outside. Consider the animals have to live out there too,” said Ketchum.
Schulz believe that if people take the time to be conscious of their surroundings, and learn to respect animals, many of the animal injuries that she sees on a daily basis can be prevented.
“We exist here. We’re in a metropolitan area city, but we need to understand that the animals were here long before we were.”