October 27, 2005


A humane Halloween

By Dennis Jamison
Special to the Times

On Halloween night, one normally has expectations of little ghosts and goblins coming to haunt your house (or simply beg for candy).

According to Janet Alexander, the director of operations for the Wildlife Center, the center cared for 5,652 wild animals last year alone. This figure includes close to one hundred different species, including many varieties of birds.

But one Halloween something out of the ordinary happened at our Almaden Valley home. An unexpected creature appeared just before dusk and altered the whole spirit of our family’s holiday.

Our family was making final preparations to leave for the evening’s activities. As our teenage daughter was going out the back door, she caught sight of something moving near a pair of gardening shoes. Peering down, she saw the back of a grayish-colored bird with an outstretched wing lying on our cement patio. As she leaned closer, the bird made a strange sound and tried to hop away from her. The abrupt movement startled her and she recoiled away from the creature and slammed the door. Calling out to the rest of the family to rescue her, we all gathered around and stood over the helpless bird. It appeared to have a wounded wing and it was not able to tuck it back close to its body. It was hard not to feel sorry for the injured animal as is seemed to tremble in fright.

Considering that the bird would surely be at the mercy of our two cats or any other predators that would roam through our yard on All Hallows Eve, we felt compelled to do something. However, it was quickly turning dark and we needed to carry on with our holiday plans.

Our dilemma was temporarily solved when we put our plans on hold and we all pitched in to rescue the wounded bird. The plan involved putting the bird in a sizeable cardboard box in our garage for the evening. We set out to assemble a bunch of dry leaves, a towel, a few breadcrumbs, and a jar lid. While these items were placed inside the box with some water in the jar lid, my eldest son managed to carefully pick up the bird and place it in our makeshift refuge.

My wife suggested that we cover the box so that the bird, which looked like a common robin, would not move around so much and calm down. After putting the towel over the box, we set out on our Halloween night adventures.

The next morning, I remembered the robin. I looked in on it and was grateful that it was still alive, although it did not look that good. It appeared to be struggling just to be standing upright. Not knowing the extent of its injuries, I was concerned that it might be dying. It seemed to be much weaker than the previous night. I felt some urgency to find some genuine help but I had no clue about what to do with a wounded, wild bird.

Although my wife suggested that we attempt to bind the wing and keep the bird until it could fly away, I felt that there should be a place in the area that could care for the bird properly. I was not certain that our good intentions would be enough to restore this creature to good health.

Quick research and a few telephone calls helped me to locate the name of a community facility that cared for abandoned and wounded wild animals. The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley had previously been established as an offshoot of the Humane Society in order to care for wild animals that required rehabilitation. My call to the staff assured me that they could provide the professional care that would be required to help our little victim.

Arriving at the Wildlife Center, my eldest son and I discovered some friendly staffers who were on hand to help us with our “admission” procedures. Our bird was confirmed to be a male robin and we were assured it would be cared for by the staff until it was healthy and ultimately released back into our same Almaden neighborhood.

One of the people on hand the day of our visit was the board president at that time, Trudi Burney. She acquainted us with the purpose and function of the Wildlife Center. The vision of the center is to have a skilled and dedicated professional staff backed by community volunteers to provide immediate, cutting edge care to wild animals that are sick, or that have been injured or orphaned. During our visit we found the center clean and with numerous displays and pictures of wild animals and a lot of informative literature.

According to Janet Alexander, the director of operations for the Wildlife Center, the center cared for 5,652 wild animals last year alone. This figure includes close to one hundred different species, including all varieties of birds, including doves, ducks, even ravens. The center does not take in reptiles as a practice, but refers such animals to local experts. The majority of animals it helps are birds and small mammals.

The staff is proud of their growth over their twelve years of operation. It is now one of the largest facilities of its kind in Northern California with an annual budget of $335,000. Of this amount, 70 percent comes from grants and endowments and personal donations. As the wildlife extension of the Humane Society, it is not always able to able house all the animals the public brings in for care. To deal with the overflow, some animals are sent to other rehabilitation centers or to the homes of volunteers.

It was a welcome surprise to discover such a resource in the middle of fast paced, high-tech, Silicon Valley. It was a good feeling to leave the wounded little creature we’d discovered on Halloween night in the care of such caring professionals.

The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley is located at 1027 Penetencia Creek Road in San Jose. To contact the center for information, call 408 929-WILD (9453).

Dennis Jamison is an Almaden Valley freelance writer.