THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220105
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 75 lines
IT'S LIKE A scene from television's ``ER.''
Doctors and technicians stand ready as the trauma patient is rushed into the operating room and placed atop a long table.
But the patient is covered with brown fur.
It's a black bear from the Dismal Swamp.
The people who run the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro may not get a bear every day. But trust me, the animal hospital has seen a variety of patients. It treats animals from nearly every state. Some 2,500 were treated there last year.
``Our patients range from hummingbirds to bald eagles and from baby bunnies to black bears,'' director Ed Clark said.
The center - with a staff of 18, including two vets - is also the leading teaching hospital in North America, and perhaps the world, for treating injuries and illnesses to wild animals.
About two-thirds of the veterinary schools in the United States send fourth-year students to Waynesboro for training at the center.
Clark was in Virginia Beach on Sunday speaking to animal-care providers and environmentalists at the home of Pam Painter.
I asked him about that black bear from the Dismal Swamp. It was a young bear weighing only 75 pounds that was hit by a car while crossing a highway.
The bear - which a Chesapeake veterinarian could not treat - was in a coma when it reached the center. Intravenous drug therapy restored the bear to consciousness, and it required surgery for internal injuries.
``We also had to put it on a dialysis machine for treatment of toxins in the bear's stomach,'' Clark said.
And where is the bear now?
``Doing bear stuff in the Allegheny Mountains,'' he replied. The bear was released there by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
A golden eagle accompanied Clark to the Painter home. Unlike most of the center's patients, the eagle has become a permanent resident.
The handsome bird, whose relatives live in western counties of Virginia, had been stolen from its nest and raised illegally.
``We can't release the bird because it has imprinted on humans and wouldn't be able to fend for itself in the wild,'' Clark said.
Clark is a co-founder of the center, which began its operation in an old barn at Waynesboro in 1982. The other founders include Clark's wife, Nancy, and Stewart and Terry Porter.
``Stewart is a wildlife veterinarian who was teaching at Blue Ridge Community College,'' Clark explained. ``People brought him injured animals from all over . . . so many the college wouldn't let him keep them there any more.''
Clark said animal caregivers in the area tried to treat animals with severe wounds and other injuries.
``But so many of them died,'' he recalled. ``We said someone should do something about this. Then we looked at each other and decided it was us.''
Today the center is housed in a handsome glass-and-cedar-shake building on a wooded 13-acre site backing onto George Washington National Forest. Visitors come to it from all over the world to learn about trauma treatment for animals and environmental threats to wildlife.
Animals treated at the center range in size from baby field mice to Siberian tigers (seized by a game warden in Rockingham County from men illegally trafficking in wildlife). The average cost for treatment of an animal is about $40.
The center's personnel don't give names to the animals in their care and avoid as much contact with them as possible.
``We believe that since they will be returned to the wild, then the more the animals like humans, the more poorly we are doing our job,'' Clark said.
The nonprofit center depends on tax-deductible contributions for its programs. If you'd like to help, checks should be mailed to The Wildlife Center of Virginia, P.O. Box 1557, Waynesboro, Va. 22980. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Mike Heffner\The Virginian-Pilot
Ed Clark, director of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, shows off a
golden eagle.
KEYWORDS: WILDLIFE CENTER OF VIRGINIA by CNB