Volunteers save wild animals
Sheree Russouw
21 December 2004
When thousands of litres of toxic oil swept into a dam in Johannesburg's western suburbs recently, a team of animal lovers rushed to rescue the birds that had made the water their home for years.
Volunteers at FreeMe, an urban wildlife rehabilitation centre in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, spent almost a week rescuing flocks of oil-coated Egyptian geese and ducks and cleaning the hazardous substance from their small bodies.
Their life-saving work means the bird population of Westdene Dam today bears no traces of the transformer oil that poured into the dam from a nearby power station.
Since 1997 FreeMe has been a haven to thousands of the city's injured birds, hedgehogs, antelope, jackals and meerkats - wildlife many residents would not even know exists in a congested city like Johannesburg.
And there is clearly a tremendous need for their work. Every year the centre's managers and 30 volunteers treat more than 6 000 injured
animals at their grounds at the scenic Rietfontein Nature Reserve, near Fourways.
"Every day is a major adventure for us," says volunteer, Anna-Maria Cosgrove. "One day you rescue a swallow that's fallen down a chimney in Dainfern. The next, you're in someone's swimming pool trying to save a hedgehog or the life of a bat that has been attacked by a cat."
The clinic is packed with casualties of city life - from squirrels to tortoises - which volunteers like Cosgrove delicately nurse back to health. The volunteers - mostly housewives and students - have come across many horror stories over the years.
Says Cosgrove: "We've had monkeys who have been kept on leashes in Diepsloot and crows that have been kept as pets. One of our owls was malnourished because she was just fed mincemeat her entire life. She will never be able to fly again."
It costs around R30 000 a month to run the centre, with funding almost entirely sourced from the public. Some local vets
perform life-saving surgery for free, while others donate medicine.
Once an animal has fully recuperated the centre releases it into nature reserves or conservancies across Gauteng, with an open permit from the provincial Department of Nature Conservation.
Others don't make it that far. "Everything that comes to us is released back into the wild because we are a rehabilitation centre. Our goal is to rescue, rehabilitate and release.
"If an animal's injuries are beyond repair and it can't go out into the wild and function on its own, we put it down. We are quite strict about that. We don't believe a caged animal is a happy animal," says Cosgrove, as she examines an emaciated young pigeon dropped off at the centre by a member of the public.
For the fledgling, the verdict is not good. It has trichomonias, a disease that literally starves it to death and one that could spell disaster for the centre's other creatures. Cosgrove gives the shaking pigeon a welcome
meal, places it back into its shoebox and announces that it will have to be put down. "It's sad to do this," she says, "but sometimes we have to."
Death is sometimes the best option for injured or compromised creatures, says centre manager, Nicci Wright. "Animals know when they are injured. I think they would prefer to be put to sleep instead of living their lives in a cage. Animals belong in the wild - not in cages."
And that is why human contact with the patients is discouraged. "We don't name any of our animals," says Cosgrove. "We try to limit human contact so that when the animals are released into the wild they can fend for themselves."
The centre knows when it has done a good job "wildling stuff up", she says, when the birds in the centre's aviaries, for example, fly away from the volunteers as soon as they approach.
Says Cosgrove: "We have so many wild animals that people have raised as pets that are too tame to survive on their own. It is difficult
because you become attached to the animals. Many bush babies have come in and they are so cute that it's hard to limit contact with them, but we know it's the best thing for them."
There is also the risk that while an animal is healing in its cage, the stress of such a confined environment could kill it. "Many of the animals here die of stress," she says. "But many are also survivors."
Fellow volunteer, Albert Lambani, who lives in a shack in Zevenfontein, says his work with hundreds of big and small creatures at the centre has given him the chance to nurture his love for animals.
"I always had a passion for animals but, living in an informal settlement, I never had any exposure to them. The more I became exposed to them, the more I came to respect and love them. I now understand their behaviour," he says.
His job guarantees a fair share of heartbreak. "Some of the animals come here and don't have a chance. That's the horrible part. But we always think of
ways that we can try to save them."
The most common injury recorded at the centre is dog and cat attacks. But Wright says the booming illegal trade in wildlife is the biggest threat facing the city's animals.
"Poor people sell wildlife like antelopes and tortoises on the side of the road because of socio-economic reasons. As long as people continue to be poor, trade like this will continue to flourish, because people don't have food to eat."
Most Johannesburg residents do care about animals, says Cosgrove, but the centre encounters "needless cruelty".
"That's the down side of this job, and it's terribly frustrating. Someone will leave an animal for a week with a broken leg and then bring it in. Would they do that to their children?"
Cosgrove says it's also human nature for people to downplay the wellbeing of an animal for their own enjoyment.
"People keep wild animals like meerkats and mongoose as pets and then when the animal starts getting
aggressive, they abandon it or hurt it. They will get an animal and love it in the beginning, but then they will forget about it and it will be shoved in a box in the back garden."
But the message of conservation is spreading, albeit slowly. "Members of the public bring many of the wild animals in from the street. Sometimes they leave donations for us, which really helps."
When the staff visit nursery schools and old-age homes in Johannesburg and its surrounds to spread awareness of the countless wild animals that live in the city, they take their group of "retired" animals along. These are animals that have been too imprinted by human contact, or abused, to ever survive on their own.
There is hope yet for Johannesburg's wildlife, it seems. "With the way the city is developing, we continue to take over animal habitats," says Cosgrove. "But some animals are adapting. I've seen the return of grey loeries and glossy starlings, which are found in the Lowveld, to
Johannesburg. It's amazing to see the animals come back."
Freeme can be reached at (011) 807-6993 or by email: Freemerehab.
Source: City of Johannesburg website
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