Wisconsin Life

We're in Fredonia, learning what it takes to rescue wildlife of all shapes and sizes, and return them back to their natural environment. Pine View Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center specializes in working to rescue and release birds of prey, predatory mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. My first stop on the property was to chat with Jeannie Lord, who founded the non-profit in 1981. Which is to tell us about the mission and vision of the center?

We have not deviated from our first day on the property.

Angela

Mm-hmm. - And that is to not only address and help assist wildlife, to rescue, recognize that a bird or a mammal or reptile or an amphibian needs intervention, to rehabilitate them, to get them back to the wild where they belong. But it's combined with our educational mantra that if you can't eat it, don't shoot it. That if you find a species out in the wild, it is okay to look, to learn, to leave it.

And what is our other guest's name? Our other guest is Paydakahn. He is a small, male red-tailed hawk. What's special about Paydakahn?

He was a victim of misuse of firearms and judgment, and so, technically, he's blind. And he is our educational ambassador, to assist us in getting the message out, not only on the uniqueness of our birds of prey, also to respect them. And there's no such thing as legally shooting a bird such as this. It's against the law.

Supporting those educational mantras are a wide range of animal ambassadors, who are cared for by Kristen Bustamante. So, this is Soren, our educational ambassador, great horned owl. He is actually visually-impaired, which is kind of why he does a little bit of the drifting. We do have one who is an imprint, which means he is unable to be released back to the wild because he was actually kept as a pet.

Wow.

Kristin Bustamante

So he does not actually know what he is, which is why it is so important at that time to not bring these young, immature baby owls, birds, mammals, anything into your home because of the devastating long-term impacts that they have. So, Kristen, can you tell us about our next ambassador? Yeah, so this is our educational ambassador, Painted Turtle. If you haven't seen one in the wild, they look quite different from this.

So, the point of the shell is it is their home. Unfortunately, this one does not have that protection because of the poor nutrition that it was fed, and lack of sunlight, Vitamin D. And it was kept in a very small aquarium. It will never be able to be released.

So I've seen plenty of these guys in pet stores, and there's care instructions, food sources, all of that. But it sounds like even people who use that approach and are following all the instructions from that setting still aren't giving the turtle what it needs. Yeah, and unfortunately, the instructions that you're given from pet stores are not always accurate. A lot of the times, you're gonna get something like this to be able to feed them, and-- Floating food.

- Yes, floating food. And this does not constitute or make up any of the 64 different things that this painted turtle will be able to eat in the wild. But people just don't know because they're not educated appropriately. So, that's where the theme of, "If it's wild, leave it there." Yeah.

- Thank you for that, Kristen. Mm-hmm, absolutely.

Angela

From their work to release animals back into their natural habitats to these animal ambassadors, Pine View is working to protect, educate, and keep Wisconsin wild.