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its efforts to rehabilitate and return native wildlife to
the wild, W.E.R.C. has worked with sick, injured, and orphaned
animals such as bobcats, badgers, owls, hawks, reptiles,
and eagles. The majority of patients are a result of human
intervention, e.g., animals hit by cars, gunshot wounds,
poisonings, etc. In addition to animals that arrive at the
center due to human intervention, there are also orphaned
animals separated from their parents before learning critical
skills necessary to feed and defend themselves in the wild.
The most extraordinary effort to rehabilitate an animal
in W.E.R.C.'s history came in the winter of 1995. A 10-week
old bobcat kitten was brought to the Center by people who
assumed it had been abandoned. The female bobcat we named
Bobbie was separated from her mother and siblings too long
to return her, and was too young to survive on her own.
After an unsuccessful search for another young bobcat at
California rehabilitation centers, W.E.R.C. decided to try
an unprecedented approach to wildlife rehabilitation. A
team of staff and volunteers at the Center transformed themselves
into a "foster" mother bobcat to ensure Bobbie
kept her natural instincts and did not become tame.
The team members fed, examined, and played with Bobbie
in a full-body fur costume and mask smeared with bobcat
urine, and bay, sage, and rosemary leaves to hide the human
scent. They worked in complete silence and imitated the
actions of a mother bobcat. Bobbie learned to hunt and pounce
for food, and as importantly, to run and hide from humans.
With an eartag so she could be recognized in future sightings,
the team members released Bobbie in March 1995 at Coyote
Lake Park, Gilroy, California. She was spotted twice by
park rangers. The first time was three months after her
release, and the next sighting was a year and a half later.
W.E.R.C. is the first rehabilitation center to attempt
to rehabilitate a singular bobcat kitten (Felis Rufus) raised
alone in captivity without human contact. The story of this
innovative approach received national and international
media coverage. W.E.R.C. continues to use this method it
pioneered to successfully raise other orphaned bobcats.
W.E.R.C.'s next goal with this project is to secure funding
to replace the 10' x 15' enclosure with one three times
that size.
While Bobbie's story was one of human interference, many
animals are brought to W.E.R.C. because they have been injured
by moving cars, pets, or even humans. As humans and their
pets populate wildlife's native habitat, we intrude on nature.
As people and wildlife try to co-exist, wildlife suffers.
We at W.E.R.C. seek not to interfere in the laws of nature
or in the tide of human expansion , but simply to lend a
helping hand to assist nature in evening up the survival
odds of displaced native wildlife.
With people come the inevitable influx of a non-native
population of pets. Until every pet owner takes responsibility
for their outdoor pets, i.e., make cats wear a collar with
warning bells and restrict dogs to their own backyard, incredible
numbers of wildlife will be subjected to terror, injury,
and mutilation by domesticated animals acting upon their
natural instincts. When these unfortunately frequent events
occur, W.E.R.C. provides care to cat-caught birds, rabbits,
and other creatures, or helps save opossums, badgers, and
squirrels which have been mangled by dogs. Without assistance,
these animals are doomed to death - a death due not to Mother
Nature but to the introduction of people and pets into their
habitat.
Each species of animal has different dietary requirements
which must be met in order in ensure survival. Conversely,
the wrong kind of food will often kill an animal, even though
it is safely eaten by humans. The process of rehabilitation
and eventual release is far more complicated than diet alone.
It may also include:
Teaching young birds to eat on their own.
Providing safe areas in which fledgling birds learn to
fly - a process which may require several days during which
young birds are grounded and unable to protect themselves.
Providing companionship with the animals' own kind to imprint
upon and learn the behavior required in the wild to survive
and be accepted by members of the same species.
Nearly all wild birds and mammals are protected under the
law. Therefore, it is illegal for them to be taken from
the wild and kept as pets or patients without federal and
state permits. W.E.R.C. is the only facility in South Santa
Clara County licensed by the California Department of Fish
and Game and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide
rehabilitative services.
W.E.R.C. is a member in good standing of the National Wildlife
Rehabilitators Association (NWRA), the International Wildlife
Rehabilitation Council (IWRC), and the California Council
for Wildlife Rehabilitators (CCWR). These organizations
address implementation of standards for facilities, care,
and caging for wildlife rehabilitation. In July 1993, W.E.R.C.
passed the IWRC Pilot Accreditation Program for Basic Standards
of Care in Wildlife Rehabilitation. We were issued a glowing
report by the IWRC Standards and Accreditation Chair. Copies
of this report are available upon request from W.E.R.C.
or the IWRC. W.E.R.C. is also a member of both the Morgan
Hill and Gilroy Chambers of Commerce.
W.E.R.C.'s Executive Director is Sue Howell, a long-time
South County resident, nature enthusiast, and recipient
of Morgan Hill's Golden Mushroom Award for outstanding community
service. Sue is an ambassador with the Morgan Hill Chamber
of Commerce, an active participant and presenter in continuing
education seminars on wildlife rehabilitation and wildlife
education, and is on NWRA's Board of Directors.
The Executive Director oversees the care, feeding, and
treatment of W.E.R.C.'s patients through state-of-the-art
wildlife rehabilitation techniques. Professional veterinary
services are secured for acute emergencies. Chronic, long-term
rehabilitative care is provided at the Center, with veterinarian
visits provided on an as-needed basis.
W.E.R.C.'s professional staff is critical to the success
of our rehabilitation program. But with the admission of
hundreds of animals every year, our staff performs only
a fraction of the services required to maintain the Center.
Their work is supplemented by an army of dedicated volunteers
enthusiastically providing care, maintenance of facilities,
representing the Center in community events, exercising
on-site education animals, attending continued education
seminars on wildlife rehabilitation, and a myriad of other
functions which comprise the services offered by W.E.R.C
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