They're halfway to good homes
Animal Services takes abused animals, gets them back on their hoofs and perches and into new homes.
By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published November 22, 2005
INVERNESS - From a corner of the county's sprawling Animal Services compound, a piercing squeak resounded Monday afternoon, just for a moment, drowning out the normal din of barking dogs and the occasional cock-a-doodle-doos of the resident roosters.
Xan Rawls, Animal Services director, squinted and flinched just a bit.
That sound, she was saying, is one of the reasons why the special animals in this area are not for everyone.
But her hope is that the sound and the animal it comes with will be exactly what a few area residents are craving. It came from a bright green, male eclectus parrot, whose red-feathered mate was sharing the same perch.
The parrots are part of two major abandonment cases decided earlier this month. The court awarded the animals seized in both cases to Animal Services. In the first case, three horses were underfed and abandoned by one owner.
In the other case, the owner of the parrots and other animals was unable to care for his menagerie because he had been jailed on unrelated charges. In this case, Animal Services took four blue and gold macaws, one harlequin macaw, one greater sulfur crested cockatoo, one umbrella cockatoo, the breeding pair of eclectus parrots, three sugar gliders, four dogs, two cats and two rats.
The dogs, cats and rats can be adopted through the regular animal adoption process, but Rawls said the other exotic species will be auctioned at 1 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Animal Services office in Inverness.
"We do the auction in a fair and equitable manner," Rawls said. "Hopefully, these animals will go to a lifetime commitment home where the people are knowledgeable about these animals."
The parrots, macaws and cockatoos need special understanding. The birds can live many years, and some families actually plan for their care in their wills or through trusts in case their pets outlive them. The birds are also extremely messy "and the more fruit you give them, the messier they are," she said.
These pets also require plenty of human attention and enrichment in the form of toys to keep them busy, Rawls said.
"When these guys came in, they literally had no toys," Rawls said. "For these birds, toys are just as important as good nutrition."
Some of the birds didn't even have perches. Many had already begun to display their stress by pulling out their feathers. Even now, more than 100 days since the seizure, some look bald. But Rawls said they are all looking much better than before. And she hopes they will all find good homes.
She is partial to the sulfur crested cockatoo that hopped right over to her when she passed by its cage.
"See how he turns his head sideways," she said, scratching its head as it pushed as close to the bars of the cage as possible. "This one is very sweet. If he wasn't so loud, I'd bid on him myself."
The sugar gliders, small flying-squirrel-like marsupials from Madagascar, chose not to appear from their secure hiding hole on this day. With the surrounding macaws screaking nearby, it was no wonder.
Out back were the two horses nursed back to health from near starvation.
"You guys going to come up?" Rawls asked as she approached the fence. Dollar, a large brown horse, and Satin, a smaller Arabian mare, trotted up to the fence when Rawls appeared, clearly seeking treats or attention.
"I don't understand how anyone can mistreat any animal," she said, gazing at the now healthy horses. The photos in her computer of what they looked like before tell of a startling transformation. These two showed all their ribs back then but not anymore. Their stablemate, Logan, is still on the road to recovery, living with a foster family. He came into Animal Services 450 pounds underweight. Eventually, he will also go to auction.
On average, the horses have gained 200 pounds. "This is simple nutrition on a consistent basis," she said.
Animal Services cannot screen potential buyers. Even through the regular adoption process, there is no way of knowing what kind of home an animal is going into. "You do the very best you can," Rawls said.
That was demonstrated among the normal animal population Monday. Standing at the front counter was an older man turning in a rambunctious mixed-breed dog. He had just adopted the dog, named Brownie, a short time ago. But Brownie, on the road to recovering from poor treatment in a previous home where Animal Services had placed him, turned out to be too much dog.
Rawls was sad that her Animal Services program had not yet found Brownie the lifetime home he deserved. Pictures of the dog in her computer show an emaciated mutt at 27 pounds. He is now 20 pounds heavier with a tail that did not stop wagging. "That was a skeleton," she said. "This is dog."
With doves cooing and incubating their next generation of offspring just feet from her desk and cockatiels whistling at one another as she tries to conduct the business of the day, Rawls said she wouldn't trade what she does, tough as it is sometimes.
Every day brings something different.
Macaws today could give way to boa constrictors tomorrow. And in every case, she said she and her staff are trying to put the animals' needs first.
"That's the joy in this career choice," she said. "It's all good."
--Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com