200 animals are already taking up half the spots at wildlife centre
Heather Amos
Jun 08, 2009
SOURCE: The Halifax Herald Limited
The only sanctuary and rehabilitation centre accepting baby raccoons in Nova Scotia is swamped. It only has space for about 400 animals, and raccoons are already taking up half the spots.
Hope Swinimer, founder of the Hope for Wildlife Society, says the facility is overrun with raccoons because many people don’t like them and don’t know enough about them.
Baby raccoons end up at the rehabilitation centre in Seaforth because people don’t like it when the animals move in, which can happen this time of year because they’re having babies.
People will trap the mothers and release them far away from the property or kill them.
A day or so later, they realize there are baby raccoons, or kits, and call Ms. Swinimer to rescue them.
"To me, the rehab is about fixing what we’ve caused like hit by cars, collisions with power lines. . . . We’re not there to make it easy for people just because they don’t want raccoons under their buildings," said Ms. Swinimer.
She says this year is particularly challenging because government funding for student workers was cut almost in half.
She’d like to hire more students because they learn so much.
The centre has about 60 volunteers, but baby raccoons need to be fed five times a day between 6 a.m. and midnight.
"We get so many of them that we can’t even bottle feed them, we need to tube feed them all," said Ms. Swinimer.
"We don’t have any choice."
Tube feeding is a more invasive process, but it ensures the kits are getting enough to eat and it’s much quicker.
Ms. Swinimer suggests that there are more humane ways to get rid of the critters instead of trapping the moms.
Raccoons hate noise and light, which is why they den in places like basements and attics. The best thing to do is to put a radio and a floodlight wherever the raccoons are.
Within about three days, the mother will have found a new den and moved all her babies.
Ms. Swinimer also says the raccoons should move out within about eight weeks, once the mother starts weaning the babies.
If they aren’t a problem, she advises waiting until they leave and then closing off the area so the mother can’t return next year.
The Hope for Wildlife Society has trouble dealing with the number of raccoons it gets annually.
"They’re going to get big and they’re going to need a big enclosure to grow up in, and it’s tough. It’s a lot of animals."
The animals live at the centre through the summer, learning some skills to prepare them for the wild. But nothing is as good as being raised by their mother.
The raccoons are fed a diet similar to what they’ll have to look for in the wild.
The centre sets up lights to attract June bugs so the kits get used to eating those, and there are minnow ponds so they learn to fish.
The raccoons are released in isolated areas across the province in August.
"There’s certain species that I think rehab better than others and I think raccoons, because they’re so adaptable, I think they probably do quite well," said Ms. Swinimer.
"I’d love to be able to do more research on that."
Many people ask her why she does so much for the raccoons.
"We have a responsibility because we’ve caused these issues. We want to teach people that all of nature is important; it’s all connected."
