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Animal Hospital Has Wild Patients

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 15, 2007

Updated: 09/13/2007 07:11 pm

BRANDON - Several passers-by watched Monday morning as a motorist hit a sandhill crane, then kept on driving on Kings Avenue.

Not knowing who to call or where to take the injured bird, they turned to a passing mail carrier, who scooped up the bird, tucked it in back of his truck and hauled it to Care Animal Hospital for treatment.

It took three people at the veterinarian's office to gently, but firmly pin the long-legged, squirming bird against an X-ray panel, its head covered with a towel to help keep it calm.

The results showed no break on its injured left leg, only a bruise - a good sign the bird might one day be released back into the wild.

For now, it is headed to a wildlife rehabilitator for physical therapy, said Hospital Administrator Cheri Kane. 'We don't get that many sandhill cranes in here that actually live. Their injuries are usually too severe, so this is really good news.'

Care Animal Hospital, at 511 E. Bloomingdale Ave., is one of few places in the region that accepts injured and orphaned wildlife from the general public at no charge, said veterinarian Richard Kane, chief of staff at this busy 24-hour clinic, surgical center and rehabilitation compound.

Mail carriers, sheriff's deputies, teachers and firefighters regularly drop by with gopher tortoises, bobcats, bunnies and songbirds, to the tune of about 700 a year, Kane said.

'We get everything from canaries to Clydesdales,' Kane said.

The crane arrived Monday atop a stack of mail, said Office Manager Jade Buchanan.

'I grabbed him out myself. He was really not a lot of trouble,' she said, as she held the bird snug against her blue scrubs, as it awaited X-rays. The mail carrier who dropped the bird off chose to remain anonymous.

'We're growing so fast here in this area, almost every injury we see is somehow related to man - a road widening, a car accident, a gun shot. Almost every one is the result of man's encroachment on their environment,' Kane said. 'And they were here first.'

The staff's goal for wildlife treated at the hospital is to return it to the wild.

Those that can't be put back together completely but can survive pain-free, take up residence in a gigantic aviary on the 15-acre compound, where they can live out their life.

Some just choose to hang around, like a red-tail hawk that swooped over Kane's head as he walked the grounds Monday. 'He just likes it here and doesn't want to leave,' Kane said of the former patient. 'We keep hoping he'll find a mate and move on.'

Every time a story appears in the newspaper or on television, Care's business picks up. People flood the office with more injured or orphaned wildlife.

Donations to care for the songbirds, turtles, opossums and squirrels that land at Care, though, come in at a much slower pace.

Most of the $50,000 or so it costs to care for the wildlife each year is absorbed by the hospital.

But, there is a way for the public to donate. It's called The Humane Foundation for Animals.

One of Kane's clients donated a Web site, so people will have a place to go and find out more about the group and its philosophy. Donations are tax-deductible.

'We are tasked with caring for the animals of the earth,' Kane said. 'It's right in Genesis,' so the goal is always to get them back out into wild.

As for the hospital's latest ward, it was treated with anti-inflammatory medicine before being handed over to a local rehabilitator for physical therapy, in preparation for its release.

TO DONATE FOR WILDLIFE

Care Animal Hospital has started a nonprofit organization to help offset the cost of caring for injured and orphaned wildlife.

Wildlife Rescue Ministries and The Humane Foundation for Animals fund medical and surgical services, as well as nursing care for orphaned and injured wildlife brought into the Bloomingdale Avenue veterinary center.

To make a tax-deductible donation, write to The Humane Foundation for Animals at P.O. Box 777, Durant, FL 33530-0777, call (813) 681-0101 or go to www.wildliferescueministries.org.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or at yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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