Is it possible to report someone with a Wildlife Rehabilitation license?

[FeatherLace]

Hi im in Georgia, and my ex's mom works at a swamp park. This gives her a rehabilitation license by default, but she is heavily misusing it. She lives with three other people in a single wide trailer and has: a baby fox, a baby deer, a racoon, 15 baby possums, 2 ferrets, two turtles, three snakes, four dogs, 12 cats, a baby flying squirell, 3 baby armadillos, and two owls.
All of these animals live inside with no outdoor spaces of their own, just kenneled like dogs at night. She does not train them to be self sufficient, but she treats them all and trains them all as pets. One of the owls that she "released" still does not know how to hunt on his own, he comes to their porch twice a day to get a rat fed to him by hand. When i confronted her about it, she told me, and i quote, "I know its wrong, but I actually want to train all of these guys to love me because they're just so sweet and I dont want to send them back to the wild. If I give them all of this love then they legally cannot be released so ill get to keep them forever".

I believe this is a violation of what her license stands for, and NO ONE should do this to wildlife. She cares for them, but she treats them like PETS. Ive watched and seen that none of these animals know how to get food on their own. They have a yearling deer that still comes up to get bottle fed any time she is hungry. They get lots of cuddles and whatever food they want whenever they want, but nothing is actually wrong with them. Ive seen her take a baby deer off the side of the road and bring it home (this same yearling) without waiting for its momma because she thought it was cute, and her logic was she could raise it safer than the actual momma.

I think this is very wrong, and she should not be allowed to do this.
Is there anyone I can report this to? She refuses to bring the animals to other rehabilitation centers either even when they are all bumping into each other there. They are called "wild" life for a reason.

Can anyone give me any advice to make her not be allowed to do this to these animals anymore?

 

[swamphiker]

Yes, you should absolutely report her. It looks like the Georgia DNR administers wildlife rehabilitator permits. Here is a page with contacts for Georgia DNR Law Enforcement: https://gadnrle.org/contact-le It might take awhile to get to the right person, but this seems like the logical place to start.

Thanks for doing the right thing!

 

[DaYooper_Duck]

Wow! She most definitely needs to have her licence taken away! I hope you can stop her before she completely ruins her 'rescue' wildlife. Best of luck!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi im in Georgia, and my ex's mom works at a swamp park

First, yes I agree she's in the wrong. Mental illness is a horrid beast! I too wanted to be like Grizzly Adams when I was young.

Next.. if your motivation is pure and to protect the animals, why not look into reporting her earlier? Seems like at this point it could be about getting revenge on you EX. Why do people only do what causes the least amount of consequences for themselves?

I would start by launching a complaint with the rescue giving her the permit.. to investigate. NO wildlife rehabber in their right mind would EVER be okay with causing perfectly viable wild animals to become habituated to humans. As someone who loves the animals and nature.. I had to remind myself of this when helping with orphaned bobcat cubs at the wildlife rehab where I volunteered one season. I caught myself baby talking to them like pets AT first. It was quite amazing to have one climb my pant leg. But even more exhilarating to see them grow into their natural behavior aggressively wrestling each other, competing for food, learning how to hunt, and ultimately yes being released if there's NO injury or ingrained unnatural behaviors like those described above!

The crowding you describe... might get some attention with a simple call of concern to your county animal control officer? Try as MANY contacts as you can until you get results! Eyewitness news on your side?? Maybe an investigative news report to put public pressure on? Can they possibly be managing all the waste properly or is it a health hazard? Speaking of health hazards.. sounds like maybe a fire hazard.. call the fire department.. they may have blocked exits or other code violations.. You county CODE enforcement office as well.. Even with permit, most locations still have maximum occupancy per property size.

The feds... many states have WAY to lax laws about topics like this.. the department of Fish and Wildlife (law enforcement) might be of some help..

https://www.fws.gov/le/

If all else fails.. call PETA and see what kind of havoc those mislead folks can turn up!

Taking her license will not likely stop her behavior. But hopefully through this maybe she will get some help to learn other coping tools for feeling loved and accepted. Instead of always scoffing and pointing fingers like the self righteous Stew Pidasso's we are, if folks look to the root cause and become more compassionate, understanding, and maybe helpful.. our prisons might not be full of our mentally ill for petty crimes. You just don't know what a person is facing.. but this Ex's mom is self medicating through her actions!

Yes, animal lives DO matter.. but HUMAN lives matter too. We always look at humans as doing such vile acts.. I've seen nature and there's nothing pretty about the mom's eating their babies if under threat of hunger or thirst themselves, or males killing offspring in order to mate the female sooner.. Most of us don't realize just how brutal nature truly is or that people ARE doing what comes natural to them.. yes other species kill each other over territory, mates, etc...

Again, she is in the wrong and it SHOULD be stopped! I just plead with my fellow BYC'ers... give the human species a little consideration and compassion as well... We ALL have reasons why we do what we do even if we don't realize them.

I do hope the animals get some relief from their well meaning but sadly mentally ill rehab/captor! It may take some persistence on your part, so hang in there..

 

[FeatherLace]

First, yes I agree she's in the wrong. Mental illness is a horrid beast! I too wanted to be like Grizzly Adams when I was young.

Next.. if your motivation is pure and to protect the animals, why not look into reporting her earlier? Seems like at this point it could be about getting revenge on you EX. Why do people only do what causes the least amount of consequences for themselves?

I would start by launching a complaint with the rescue giving her the permit.. to investigate. NO wildlife rehabber in their right mind would EVER be okay with causing perfectly viable wild animals to become habituated to humans. As someone who loves the animals and nature.. I had to remind myself of this when helping with orphaned bobcat cubs at the wildlife rehab where I volunteered one season. I caught myself baby talking to them like pets AT first. It was quite amazing to have one climb my pant leg. But even more exhilarating to see them grow into their natural behavior aggressively wrestling each other, competing for food, learning how to hunt, and ultimately yes being released if there's NO injury or ingrained unnatural behaviors like those described above!

The crowding you describe... might get some attention with a simple call of concern to your county animal control officer? Try as MANY contacts as you can until you get results! Eyewitness news on your side?? Maybe an investigative news report to put public pressure on? Can they possibly be managing all the waste properly or is it a health hazard? Speaking of health hazards.. sounds like maybe a fire hazard.. call the fire department.. they may have blocked exits or other code violations.. You county CODE enforcement office as well.. Even with permit, most locations still have maximum occupancy per property size.

The feds... many states have WAY to lax laws about topics like this.. the department of Fish and Wildlife (law enforcement) might be of some help..

https://www.fws.gov/le/

If all else fails.. call PETA and see what kind of havoc those mislead folks can turn up!

Taking her license will not likely stop her behavior. But hopefully through this maybe she will get some help to learn other coping tools for feeling loved and accepted. Instead of always scoffing and pointing fingers like the self righteous Stew Pidasso's we are, if folks look to the root cause and become more compassionate, understanding, and maybe helpful.. our prisons might not be full of our mentally ill for petty crimes. You just don't know what a person is facing.. but this Ex's mom is self medicating through her actions!

Yes, animal lives DO matter.. but HUMAN lives matter too. We always look at humans as doing such vile acts.. I've seen nature and there's nothing pretty about the mom's eating their babies if under threat of hunger or thirst themselves, or males killing offspring in order to mate the female sooner.. Most of us don't realize just how brutal nature truly is or that people ARE doing what comes natural to them.. yes other species kill each other over territory, mates, etc...

Again, she is in the wrong and it SHOULD be stopped! I just plead with my fellow BYC'ers... give the human species a little consideration and compassion as well... We ALL have reasons why we do what we do even if we don't realize them.

I do hope the animals get some relief from their well meaning but sadly mentally ill rehab/captor! It may take some persistence on your part, so hang in there..

I'm not really the revenge type. When I was with my ex, she only had the normal pets, (ferrets, cats, dogs), and she got a raccoon. I talked to her about sending it to a rescue and she insisted she had the licensing to care for it best. I left it at that, and when the raccoon bit one of their other pets they just "released" him into the woods. Take note it had been raised by them from a baby and had never learned what the woods are. If i had to think about it I'd say its dead now. Then she got the owl that doesnt know how to hunt now. He was an owlett when they got him and again I pushed to get him put in a rehab center but to the same result. It wasn't until I broke up with him that his mother started getting more animals. Im not on speaking terms with the family anymore but all the pictures I've seen on Facebook, reports from others who have visited their house, etc, I know its just gotten much worse. Even when we were together I told his mom that I would call the DNR if she kept bringing in animals like that, but she dismissed it and threatened my ex that I was a "bad influence and had to live by their rules if we wanted to stay together". "Her rules" were not backtalking or claiming you know better than how she treats her animals.

Other than that though she has a happy family, and from what she's said and done I know all this is just because she wants more cute pets. She once tried to steal a baby bird from me because she thought she could provide better care! Real reason was because I was taking it to a rehab center and she didn't want to see it go. She just infuriates me.

I know she'll still try to keep wild animals, but at least I can make it illegal for her to, to at least prevent it from getting so bad. I will call whoever I can to get these animals to a REAL rehab center, so they aren't having to suppress their natural instincts the rest of their lives.
And trust me...the house does not smell good..

 

[WA_RN]

I second starting with contacting local animal control enforcement. They should be able to assist with getting you in touch with the right entity to investigate.

 

[FeatherLace]

Yes, you should absolutely report her. It looks like the Georgia DNR administers wildlife rehabilitator permits. Here is a page with contacts for Georgia DNR Law Enforcement: https://gadnrle.org/contact-le It might take awhile to get to the right person, but this seems like the logical place to start.

Thanks for doing the right thing!

I called the game warden, who sent me to law enforcement, who sent me to game management, who sent me to the head ranger that issues the licenses but he was out to lunch. So far the people i talked to though seemed concerned about it so hopefully I'll get a call back and have something done about this

 

[FeatherLace]

I realize it might seem like I'm just trying to get revenge on an ex, but honestly we didn't leave on bad terms. I just keep thinking about how the animals shes already "rehabilitated" are doing and how many more animals shes kept getting. It just knocked me over the edge when I heard and got pictures of their home, which has all of the animals I listed above running around. The fox lays underneath their sofa, the deer resides in their bathroom, etc etc. I just can't sit by pretending this is right

 

[swamphiker]

I called the game warden, who sent me to law enforcement, who sent me to game management, who sent me to the head ranger that issues the licenses but he was out to lunch. So far the people i talked to though seemed concerned about it so hopefully I'll get a call back and have something done about this

I'm glad that folks seem like they want to help! Continue to be persistent and hopefully something will be done. I don't live in Georgia, but most state DNR/wildlife agencies are understaffed and underfunded, so it make take some time.

 

[WA_RN]

I realize it might seem like I'm just trying to get revenge on an ex, but honestly we didn't leave on bad terms. I just keep thinking about how the animals shes already "rehabilitated" are doing and how many more animals shes kept getting. It just knocked me over the edge when I heard and got pictures of their home, which has all of the animals I listed above running around. The fox lays underneath their sofa, the deer resides in their bathroom, etc etc. I just can't sit by pretending this is right

It sounds to me like your motivation is based on what’s best for the animals. You are doing the right thing by reporting and it will be investigated by the proper authority. It sounds like a really bad situation and I applaud you for reporting.