INSIDE
University Daily Kansan, June 6, 1984
Page 7
The University Daily KANSAN
Program helps wildlife recover from losses and rejoin nature
John Mulder, doctor of veterinary medicine and director of the animal care unit, operates on an injured screw creech. Jeanie
Hauser, veterinary technician at the animal care unit, assists with the operation to remove a screw eagle's damaged eye.
story and photos by Stephen Phillips
Mulder removes the damaged eye from the screech owl. Hauser and Mulder tried to treat the bird's eye for several weeks, but it had to be removed.
A patient lays anesthetized on the operating table as the surgeon works to remove one of his eyes, which had been damaged and could not be saved.
Suddenly the patient stops breathing. A technician administers artificial respiration through a tube that attaches the patient to the anesthesia machine.
The patient lives.
This scene did not take place in a hospital, but in Malott Hall's Animal Care Unit. The patient, a screech owl, was operated on by John Mulder, doctor of veterinary medicine and director of the Animal Care Unit at the University of Kansas. Jeanie Hauser, veterinary technician, assisted in the operation.
Together, Mulder and Hauser head the Rolling Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation program at the University.
The purpose of the program, Hauser said, is to "receive injured, orphaned and diseased wild animals that are protected by law.
"We attempt to rehabilitate them if necessary and then release them," she said.
Since the hospital's inception in 1979, the unit has cared for more than 700 wild animals.
"We started it because of our own interests in wildlife." Hauser said.
In addition to caring for injured wild animals, Hauser and Mulder are in charge of caring for 11,000 lab animals used in research at KU.
Other employees at the Animal Care Unit donate their time to help with the program, including the time they spend
The screech owl before surgery
caring for young animals in their homes, Hauser said.
Most of the animals treated in the program were birds of prey. Mulder said, such as hawks and owls.
"Some are shot by careless hunters, some maybe not so careless," he said. "A few owls get hit by cars or run into power lines or radio towers."
After the animals are treated, many are taken to the Sunflower Farm, a research farm near Eudora that is owned by the University, where the animals are placed in pens large enough for them to move around or fly. Hauser said.
Volunteers strengthen the bird's wings by allowing it to fly while they are attached to the end of a long cord.
The exercise is necessary after surgery because muscles normally used to fly may have been damaged by the injury or weakened because of inactivity, she said.
Eventually, more than half of all the animals received are released. Hauser said, and those that can't survive alone are placed in zoos or in programs designed to educate the public about wildlife.
Most of the animals cared for in the unit are brought to the care center by the Kansas Fish and Game Commission.
In the spring, though, the hospital receives what Hauser calls "innocent kidnappings," baby birds that have fallen out of nests or young animals that are waiting for their parents to return.
"The parents do leave the young unattended when they are out foraging for
food," Hauser said. "They are not orphans."
Mulder suggested that anyone who has found a young animal should get far away and watch for the parents to return.
"With a deer, you have to totally leave the area," Mulder said.
Baby birds are usually safe unless there is a cat or other predator in the area, he said.
"With a baby bird, if you see the nest you can just put the bird back in the nest," Mulder said.
If an animal does need help, both Hauser and Mulder urged caution when handling an injured animal. Animals get aggressive when they have been injured and may fight, they said, and it is easy to harm them during transportation.
Birds should be wrapped lightly in a coat or towel and put in a box where they won't roll around. Another towel should be put in the box for the bird to grab onto, Hauser said.
A person can call animal control officers if they find an animal in the city, or the Fish and Game Commission if the animal
is outside city limits
Both Hauser and Mulder said that they did not approve of people attempting to raise wild animals as pets.
Mulder said, "We get some that people kidnapped and tried to raise, and they are so imprinted or socialized to man that they really can't be released again."
Young animals are
Hauser and Mulder also said that they handled the animals in a way that helped prevent them from becoming overly accustomed to humans. Young animals are
often placed with older animals of the same species so they will identify with their own kind. Sometimes they feed young animals with forceps stuck through the mouths of stuffed animals, Hauser said.
Hauser also said that it was illegal to keep wild animals as pets, and that federal and state permits were required to treat them.
Hauser said that it was not fair to put a wild animal in a cage and keep it as a pet.
wild animal in a cage and keep it as a pet. Why take away freedom from something that was given freedom, she said.
Although the money for operating expenses, which amounted to about $2,500 last year, is often donated, Hauser said, much of the rehabilitation center's money comes out of the volunteers' pockets.
An endowment account last year helped pay some of the expenses, she said, and they are expecting to receive $1,000 from the "Chickadee Check-Off" on state income tax forms.
The rehabilitation center receives no money from the University. Hauser said, but KU has donated the facilities in Malott Hall.
Taxpayers may mark the "Chickadee Check-Off" box on the Kansas State income tax form if they wish to donate one dollar to a fund for non-game wildlife in the state.
Mulder examines an X-ray to see how well a hawk was recovering.
Mulder and Hauser attach a leather strap to the leg of a hawk recovering from surgery. After the hawk is accustomed to the leather strap, they will attach a long cord to the hawk and allow it to fly short distances to gain strength prior to release.