Salvatore Wildlife Rescue

12/16/2024

Tomorrow from 9-11a!

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Agenda includes:
- Discussion of next steps in response to the Petition to Suspend the Registrations of
Anticoagulant Rodenticide Products in Massachusetts submitted by the Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Clinic to the Subcommittee. (Vote required)
- Consideration of requests to allow a presentation by a member of the public to be included on
the agenda of a future Subcommittee meeting. (Vote required)

Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Location: Meeting to be held via remote participation: Join Zoom Meeting at:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87699413603?pwd=TslfFOpJRJZrwtNEESe7HlNTwUwubF.1
Passcode: 585633

Snowy Owls are some of the most majestic creatures on earth. This owl was named "Seabrook" and was the victim of rodenticide poisoning twice. Seabrook was found in distress from rodenticide poisoning in February 2022 and received care from "On the Wing" facility in Epping, NH. Seabrook was released a month later in a neighboring town, but flew back to the original location of restaurants with rodenticide bait boxes everywhere. The beautiful owl ate more dying rodents and received secondary rodenticide poisoning for a second time.
Why do we allow this to occur? The research has been done and the data is conclusive. The only people benefiting from bait boxes are the companies that manufacture and distribute this product. There are alternative rodent control methods that do not harm the natural predators (the real rodent control methods).
Yesterday I posted about a Zoom meeting tomorrow where the Pesticide Control Board will discuss a petition to restrict rodenticides in Massachusetts. The public can attend, but will not be allowed to speak. However, our presence at this Zoom meeting may help the committee realize the public wants action to protect our natural predators. I will be posting the Zoom link in the comments as well as a link to the full story of "Seabrook".
Let's honor "Seabrook" and all the predators that have suffered too long from rodenticides by eliminating rodenticides from Massachusetts.

12/14/2024

When I said I was blown away I truly meant it because holy packages, Batman!! 🤯🫶

12/14/2024

Adam is in the news again!

I love that this article focuses so much on the work Jodi Sylvester, who asked if I would be willing to assist in this campaign, spearheaded to get the Leominster mall to pivot off of rat poisons. She also more recently got the shopping plaza near Horn Pond in Woburn (where an owl recently succumbed to rat poisons as well) to agree to a similar pivot!

Jodi isn't a wildlife rehabilitator. She's not a veterinarian. Or a policy maker.

What she is is a woman with a passion.
She's just like you!
And she proves so magnificently what one single person is capable of doing. You're an inspiration, Jodi, and I'm so glad to have worked with you!

A big thank you to Danielle Ray for writing this article. 💕

LEOMINSTER — One woman’s tireless crusade to advocate for wild critters has led to two business entities changing the way they manage rodents. Longtime nature photographer Jodi Sylvester has …

12/13/2024

Tiny Tim has finished her month-long antibiotic treatment so officially gets to start tiptoeing back into longer stretches of self-regulated water time! She's a weaker swimmer than we'd prefer seeing at the moment, but that makes sense when you consider that she was dry docked for the vast majority of the day since admit and was critically unwell for an unknown length of time before that.

For the new faces around here, Tim was stolen from the wild 2.5 years ago and spent the first 18 months of that time with what we're told was both a deeply problematic setup and diet which kept her at hatchling size that entire time. Her "finders", as it were, got her from that original person last December and worked really hard to turn things around for her; in many ways they succeeded because she finally started to grow! Her health continued to struggle, though, and their vet diagnosed her with vitamin A deficiency and Septicemic Cutaneous Ulcerative Disease (SCUD), a kind of shell rot infection which amongst other things caused the missing plastral scutes on her belly which are visible in this photo via the pale pink exposed tissue where she's missing shell coverage. At this point they reached out to try to find alternate placement for her because they care about her deeply and want the best for her.

Had Tim been captive-bred we wouldn't have been the right match, but since she's a wild baby we were game to see what we can do. It is our hope that she will heal (turtles are unbelievable healers so this is likely), learn the necessary skills, then be cleared for release to live her next decades as she deserves. At our wildlife vet's request we have tagged in the state herpetologist (did you realize we have one of those?) for him to weigh in on whether that is the right call, given the specifics of her case and how long she has been unwell. 🤞🤞

12/13/2024

The wave of packages begins!

Y'all grabbed so many things off the wishlists yesterday that the local Amazon drivers are likely to think we put an alarming amount of gifts under our tree 😂 I suspect that it is going to take some time to work through all of the packages, so a pre-emptive thank you to everyone who made purchases!

While you're here and I have your attention I also want to take a moment to welcome all the hundreds of newcomers and to broadly thank everyone who has donated. Between the wishlists, GoFundMe, Venmo, Paypal, and ESPECIALLY all of the kind comments you left I spent most of yesterday in shock, trembling and amazed. I've never been on the receiving end of goodwill at this scale and it is has profoundly affected me. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

12/13/2024

The Barred Owl is bright, alert, and a little spicy this morning which is exactly what we hoped to see! Tufts opens at 8:30 so our avian friend will soon be leaving us, but we've been happy to lend him a temporary hand until that happens 💕🦉

Edit: safe and sound at Tufts Wildlife 😊

12/13/2024

We have an unusual guest overnighting with us this evening! This beautiful Barred Owl was hit by a car in Lunenburg a short time ago so came here for a little R&R, which in this case means fluids, pain meds, and a warm safe place to stay until our friends at Tufts Wildlife open in the morning. He has an injured wing, but seems to be in pretty good shape otherwise so fingers crossed they're able to work their magic with him! 🤞

12/12/2024

It's been quiet here this week because I slipped on black ice and injured my tailbone, but I am BLOWN AWAY by everyone's generosity this morning!

Thank you thank you thank you 🥰😭

12/10/2024

The fallout of a devastating and infuriating situation is ongoing down in Tennessee, but there is a link within this post if you would like to help Exotic Pet Wonderland with it. 💕

We have kept silent for as long as we can.

Our friends at Exotic Pet Wonderland have recently rescued the very few survivors of a large-scale exotic pet breeder here in Tennessee. These animals are in very poor condition and in desperate need of medical attention, as well as long-term care.

This photo shows the mangled, mutilated hand of a raccoon they rescued. She was forced to give birth in a tiny cage for years and had her babies ripped away from her to be bottle fed and sold as pets.

At one point in 2018, the breeder had the audacity to spam For Fox Sake’s supporters with advertisements for his raccoons, then called us names and threatened us when we blocked him from commenting.

We have reason to believe that this breeder allowed *hundreds* of animals to die of neglect by starvation and disease. Remains of exotic animals, with bullet holes through their skulls, were found on the property, and many more are unaccounted for.

This breeder has a very lengthy, well-documented record of extreme animal abuse and not been licensed since January, but continued selling animals throughout the year, all while posting photos of the animals admitting they “haven’t been fed in days” and “were poorly.”

We saw this happen. We sent proof of the animals’ conditions and continued sales for months. We begged authorities to intervene and bring the surviving animals to safety. They refused to do anything.

Now it is much too little, much too late. The only survivors of this large-scale operation are seven raccoons and two coyotes. The lemurs, bobcats, squirrels, groundhogs, servals, foxes, lynxes, pine martens, porcupines, coatis, opossums, caracals, and domestic cats and dogs are all dead.

Despite the fact that this facility had over a decade of documented animal abuse— spelled out in photos, citations, and impotent “official warnings” of no real consequence— the animals were not rescued until now. This far-too-late rescue only happened because of immense pressure from us and our friends in the rescue community.

Since we are only able to take wild-born animals and do not have space to add coyotes or more raccoons to our education program, we are unable to directly assist the survivors. But, if you are upset about this injustice, please, please donate to Exotic Pet Wonderland to help ensure that these animals are able to overcome their past and live out their lives in comfort.

www.gofundme.com/f/care-for-abandoned-raccoons-and-coyotes

*** THERE ARE STILL NO CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS.***

12/10/2024

Timmy is getting her daily soak on! Although still dry docked because of her infection, as a semi-aquatic species she needs some daily water time to ensure she stays hydrated, fed, and to give her time to, well, see a man about a horse. Her plastron (belly shell) still looks rough as that's where the shell rot she arrived with is located, but her carapace (back shell) is making good visible progress! She has a good number of old scutes that didn't shed as she grew bigger, but those lighter patches are where the retained scutes are starting to peel up!

12/08/2024

I am attending a Continuing Education seminar today and will be unavailable after 1pm. Thanks for your understanding while I work to level up my wildlife care! 💕

12/07/2024

Per mass.gov, more than 5,000 animals have tested positive for rabies across the Commonwealth since 1992- raccoons, bats, and skunks are the species which are most commonly affected here in Massachusetts, but ANY mammal is able to acquire it.

I love how compassionate you all are towards local wildlife, but for your own safety please remember: gloves gloves gloves!

12/06/2024

Thank you for the turtle supplies, Diane! 💕

12/05/2024

Enjoying some hot cocoa with my human children since they have a snow day today and all my non-human littles are self-feeding big kids.

Speaking of those big kids, I took in another white-footed mouse from Tufts yesterday! He and the last little (also male) still don't have names... do you have any suggestions?

Edit: The votes have been tallied and Crimson and Cornelius are the winners 🎉

12/04/2024

Thank you so much for the turtle supplies Samara! 🐢💕

12/04/2024

The giant winter wild turkey flocks are officially afoot! This particular army, as my family prefers to call these mega-groups, of about 50 birds just spent the last thirty minutes grazing on property. Turkeys tend to flock up with similar turkeys during the winter- last year's jakes with other jakes, toms with other toms, unmated hens with other unmated hens, and the largest groups like this one tend to be hens with this year's poults grouping together with other hen and poult families.

The fact that they spent so long hanging out here is a triumph and a testament to how quickly you can enact change yourselves- we moved onto this property, which was an herbicide sprayed monoculture of grass that not even chipmunks hung out in, in July 2022. Each season we've added biodiversity to the lawn and installed garden beds with even more plantings. In 2023 turkeys started coming around, but would largely just pass through. This is the first time that they came here and stayed for awhile, grazing through the lawn now full of many species and sipping from the wildlife pond. 🎉🎉🎉

12/04/2024

Thank you so much for hanging around today and getting to know some of the animals that came through this year and whose care was assisted by all you lovely people! To all those who donated today for Giving Tuesday on the GoFundMe as well as the currently unknown folks who appear to have browsed the Wishlists, I so appreciate you. To those who bought merch and to everyone who pitched in before Giving Tuesday, I appreciate you as well! I'm able to help so many more animals than I otherwise would have because of you.

All the links will stay active and pinned, but they can also be found on our website if you want to check them out later.

My love and gratitude,
Stephanie

12/04/2024

Let's talk bird rehab since this might end up being the last post of the night! 😴

Bird rehabilitation is a little more complicated than for other animals in that the vast majority of bird species, from the smallest of songbirds to the largest of raptors, cannot be rehabbed if you only have a state permit...you actually need TWO permits! One from the state, yes, but since so many birds migrate you also need a second federal bird rehabilitation permit as well! Getting the federal permit takes a significant amount of time and training so there are much fewer rehabbers across the state who have both.

Here in Massachusetts the bird species you can legally care for with only a state permit are: wild turkeys, ruffed grouse, rock pigeons, mute swans, ring-necked pheasants, Northern bobwhites, European Starlings, and- like our funny looking friend in this photo- House Sparrows. Any other species are going to require someone with a federal permit- the listings on the Mass.gov Find a Wildlife Rehabilitator page will indicate that, but if you're having trouble finding one you can ask a nearby rehabber to help you locate the ones closest to you.

Salvatore Wildlife Rescue is not a bird rehab facility, but we took in two birds this year. One was an injured crow which we transferred to Tufts and the other was the pictured House Sparrow, Shirley. Shirley was the only survivor after all the nestlings fell out of their nest onto the finder's paved driveway. It was late and we knew that a. This baby would not survive the night without care and b. That it would be almost impossible to find another rehab who could take it before morning so Shirley came to us. He (or she, they look identical when young) was initially only supposed to stay with us for the weekend, but the transfer facility we lined up didn't end up having space for a couple weeks so here he stayed in the meantime.

Y'all, baby birds are a LOT. If you know any bird rehabbers, online or in person, go shower them with love because they just might be superheroes. This baby spent a little over two weeks screaming at us every 30-60 minutes and had to accompany us everywhere. Father's Day brunch, our 8th grader's outdoor Commencement, recreational or requisite outings to all manner of locations. There Shirley was, screeching in a pet carrier inside a purse next to a copy of our permit, just in case.

Hilariously, though, in all that time only one person (a ~10 year old child) even noticed. No one else blinked an eye, looked twice, or even squinted suspiciously. So if you have a day when you are feeling self-conscious about your hair or your outfit, or maybe you're a little overdue for a shave but haven't had the time? Don't worry. If the hundreds, probably thousands, of people we passed in all that time didn't notice a bird screaming so loudly that you could literally hear it on a different floor of the house then you are golden!

During Giving Tuesday we will be posting photos of our 2024 animals all day with our fundraising links attached, see below.

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-caging-for-salvatore-wildlife-rescue

Caging Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2EGLVSA3K0Q61?ref_=wl_share

General Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/XS10EGWPJ5U7?ref_=wl_share