
DATE: Tuesday, October 21, 1997             TAG: 9710210254

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   85 lines

ANIMALS PAY PRICE FOR NEW HIGHWAYS CHESAPEAKE'S GROWTH IS RIPPING AWAY AT ANIMALS' NATURAL HABITAT.

The swath of forest dug up for the Oak Grove Connector was not without its local residents.

And while the humans got recompense, the animals have been forced to fend for themselves.

It's the same story along Greenbrier Parkway. When the new Target store and shopping center replaced forest off Volvo Parkway, four fox cubs paid the price. Their mother abandoned their suddenly crowded den.

Chesapeake's growth is ripping away natural habitat. And as more and more raw acreage is bulldozed away, the problem likely will get worse for local wildlife.

Kathy Umberger, head coordinator of Chesapeake Animal Control, is seeing the problem firsthand.

In 1996, her shelter received 569 animals other than dogs and cats, mostly wildlife.

That same number has gone up substantially this year. Through Sept. 30, animal control officers had handled 637 ``other'' animals.

``If you destroy a habitat,'' Umberger said, ``the animals have to go somewhere.''

It's a situation that the city's animal control officers, who are around to control and protect domestic animals, is not geared to handle, Umberger said.

``By default, we get asked to handle it,'' she said. ``You name it, we get the call.''

Animal control doesn't have the capacity or the know-how to nurse sick or injured wild animals back to health. When faced with this, control officers turn to wildlife rehabilitators like Midway Veterinary Hospital in Chesapeake.

When an animal is healthy, it is immediately released. Where it is released depends on where it was found and the available natural space around that area. Umberger said she has yet to have a problem finding space to release the wild animals, but that the time is approaching fast.

``That's something that may happen in the near future, but we haven't faced that yet,'' she said.

The problem has gotten so bad that Ruth Ann MacQueen, head vet at Midway and president of Wildlife Response, is trying not to keep track of the number of injured wildlife passing through her door.

``I know I'm spending a lot of money, and if I really look at it, I'll quit doing it,'' she said.

The stream of injured wildlife through Midway's door is constant, with five to eight calls a day.

``Everything I get in has had some contact with a human, one way or another,'' said Lisa Barlow, a permitted state and federal wildlife rehabilitator who works at Midway.

Last week, she was working on a barred owl with two badly broken legs after being hit by a car in Suffolk.

The bird was initially examined in Chesapeake and sent later to a veterinarian in Virginia Beach that specializes in such injuries.

It was the second owl to come through the hospital in the last week. A construction worker brought in another owl from Chesapeake with a head injury.

The problem is only going to get worse, wildlife officials said, with construction pending on the long-anticipated Va. Route 168, U.S. Route 17 near the Great Dismal Swamp, and moves to begin residential construction into rural portions of Chesapeake.

Tommy Foreman, streets administrator for the city, expected an increase in the road kill along Great Bridge Boulevard with the start of construction of the Oak Grove Connector.

``I was looking to see that happen,'' he said, ``but we've seen none.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

An injured owl is taped with its wings spread out for X-rays at

Midway Veterinary Hospital in Chesapeake. The owl had two broken

legs.

Photos

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

An X-ray of an owl that was taken to Chesapeake's Midway Veterinary

hospital shows the broken legs it suffered when it was hit by a car.

With construction increasing, some say, such mishaps will grow more

frequent.

Veterinarian Ruth Ann MacQueen, left, and Lisa Barlow, a permitted

wildlife rehabilitator, prepare to X-ray a wounded barred owl at