A BP WIldlife Volunteer Tells His Story

I just stumbled upon this blog from a guy who worked hard to become a wildlife volunteer during the BP disaster.  Like many, he had experience handling wildlife and like many, what he witnessed from the paid responders was anything but professional.  In this time of National Crisis BP, our governing agencies and national conservation organizations seemed utterly content with inexperienced personnel handling the highly sophisticated and delicate job of wildlife capture and rehabilitation.  Thanks to so many people like Douglas, Darlene and Kaya Eschete, and the many wildlife experts from the IBRRC who managed to perform in such an uncooperative and hostile environment.

Here is an excerpt from Douglas Doneson's blog:

"These people were not volunteers like my friend and I. They were being paid by BP to “clean and rescue birds.” But in actuality they were injuring healthy birds. Healthy, in nature is a relative concept. Almost all wild animals have parasites, injuries, etc. Before a person, educated in wildlife recovery, catches an animal they must weigh its injury against the stress the animal will go through when it is caught, but I digress."

To read the full story please click here. 

Comments

[Sisterbluebird]

Thank you for linking to that sad story. That is heart wrenching about the bird they chased. It was probably hanging around a nest site. :( I raise birds, and they are delicate in the hands of humans. People don't realize how strong they are, how easy it is to hurt them even when one is being careful, how fragile their hearts are and their wings and legs. Just Imagining some hand handed fool chasing my birds in the backyard is infuriating and frightening to imagine. Them after wildlife already affected by the poisons of a spill and corexit, just pathetic and sad. BP did a half@ss job the whole way round and our government let them. Stuff like that didn't have to happen. All that was needed was a little mindfulness

[Sisterbluebird]

BTW, have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpPIgWTk1Ys&feature=share It involves Birds in Florida washing ashore now, Covered in oil.

Miami-area: 35-40 large birds reported "floating in Biscayne Bay covered in oil"

[douglas]

How are the clean up efforts now? nice blog by the way. you have some very honest and informative posts

[loreea]

What clean up efforts?

You mean the ones where they are digging up the beaches and sifting the sand and with it the angelwing shells and the crabs in Escambia?

Or the ones where they are driving four-wheelers endlessly up and down the beach for the appearance of beach cleanup?

Sorry if I sound bitter, I am. Sister Blue - I wouldn't even give them credit for half.

My kids say, mom, we hit oil. I say, cover it up and don't dig so deep. But mom, we're not that...Don't get me started.

Peace to you Drew. Thank you for shining the light the way you did.

[Gulf Coast Local]

I would like to personally thank all the volunteers who helped us with the clean-up of this tragic oil spill. I am very happy the beaches seemed to be recovering somewhat and the Gulf Coast is getting back to its old self

[SueBee]

You know, I've never volunteered professionally to clean up animals after an oil spill, but I'd like to argue for a moment that common sense would tell me to not stress out an animal more than necessary; I figured this much out the first time (as a young person) I tried to give my pet cat a flea bath. The task went ok, but only after my cat figured out that I wasn't trying to drown her!

It seems the same kind of logic would apply to something as major as an oil spill, and that untrained staff would look to those with experience for help before undertaking such sensitive tasks. Then again, I'm wondering if these folks were paid by the animal, and were left inexperienced due to the oil company not giving real consideration to the task in the first place? Only time will tell. I know there are a lot of well-intentioned people out there, but others are simply clueless and remain so despite anyone's attempt to teach.