Rescue group seeks Escondido animal lovers

By: RUTH MARVIN WEBSTER - Staff Writer | Saturday, March 17, 2007 9:27 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- With the busiest time of the year just around the corner, Wildlife Assist is looking for more volunteers to help rescue wildlife in trouble.

"We get the most calls between March and July, when nestlings fall from their nests," Escondido resident Fred Bowen said Saturday afternoon at a volunteer orientation meeting at the Escondido Public Library.

Bowen said he began volunteering for Wildlife Assist at the end of 1999 after he retired.

Born and raised along the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Mo., he said, he grew up around wildlife, but he's learned a lot more about animals since he has been rescuing them.

"I still don't like snakes," he said, though he has rescued two in his years with Wildlife Assist, "and have learned never to let a raccoon get above you. I was going after a racoon that couldn't get off a balcony, and he peed all over me. They are very accurate and this one had the bladder the size of an elephant."

"Or at least it seemed that way," he added, with a good-humored smile.

Bowen said that the organization keeps about 50 volunteers relatively busy. Each person gets four hours of training and is equipped with kennels or crates in three different sizes, raptor gloves, a catch pole and a uniform.

Volunteers are also equipped with three different-sized nets, safety glasses, neoprene gloves, a Thomas Guide map, picture identification card and a car-top sign if they are interested.

"Some people think they look like a pizza delivery sign," said Wildlife Assist founder Malloy "and don't want to put them on their cars, and that's OK."

Licensed with the necessary state and federal permits, Wildlife Assist volunteers cannot relocate healthy wildlife or help marine animals, and they do not rescue mammals larger than a small deer. And no mountain lions.

"I used to be a hunter," said Bowen, "but I couldn't do it now.

"It is fun giving animals a second chance by getting them to a 'rehabber' or releasing them again in the wild," he said. "We don't leave them to a miserable death."

Founded in 1999 by Marie Molloy, Wildlife Assist responds to more than 1,000 calls a year from the public and agencies such as the Harbor Police, military and lifeguards who report wild birds and mammals in trouble.

Bowen said Malloy pays for the equipment issued to all volunteers and has provided all of the lifeguards in North County with kennels that cost about $100 each to hold injured birds until they can be taken to a veterinarian or rehabilitation person for treatment. She also has been monitoring all of the Navy bases in San Diego County herself for injured birds for many years.

Bowen estimates that some 90 percent of the calls the group fields are for birds with wing injuries, having been stunned from flying into windows or caught in fishing nets and twine near the shoreline.

"They get caught up in discarded fishing lines or soda-can plastic," said Bowen. "If every fisherman would pick them up, take them home and cut them up before putting them in the trash, we wouldn't have this trouble. Seagulls are really hard to catch."

The next orientation meeting, which lasts about an hour, is scheduled at the Escondido Public Library at 2 p.m. April 21. Those interested may contact Wildlife Assist at (619) 921-6044, by e-mail at wildlifeassist@aol.com, or visit their Web site at: www.wildlifeassist.org.

Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com.