LITTLE TUJUNGA CANYON : Refuge Educates About Wild Animals

Urban humans can live in peace with wild animals; it’s just a question of how, said a volunteer with the Wildlife Waystation, a wild animal refuge in Little Tujunga Canyon.

“There’s a lot of conflict going on between man and animals,” said Larry Baron, volunteer director who oversees off-ranch activities for the refuge. “We want to try to teach as best we can how to live with wild animals.”

As cities take over former wilderness areas and habitable land for wild animals shrinks, the conflict between human and beast can increase, Baron said. But, he said, people can take precautions to protect themselves.

Representatives of the Wildlife Waystation and other animal-care organizations and facilities will discuss the conflict and offer solutions for it Sunday at an Animal Survival Day at Rio Hondo College in Whittier. The event, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., is also intended to make the public aware of the plight of animals.

The Wildlife Waystation cares for more than 1,000 native and exotic animals from all over the nation. Animals rescued by the facility include many that had been pets, originally bought by people who wrongly thought that if they got the animal young enough they could tame it.

“Then, they realize they have taken on more than they can chew,” Baron said.

The refuge offers a home of last resort for wild animals that have been orphaned, and volunteers also act as surrogate mothers to hand-raise and bottle-feed hundreds of baby animals before they can be returned to the wild.

The facility has 35 hybrid wolves, a mixture of wolf and dog, which usually are routinely destroyed by animal control officers because they have no place in either the wild or in civilization, Baron said.

Baron said volunteers at the refuge also try to educate the public about how to deal with coyotes who may prey on pets in populated mountain regions.

“You must make sure your pets are always protected,” Baron said. “You don’t do anything to attract the animals.”

The Wildlife Waystation gives tours for schoolchildren to learn firsthand about the plight of wild animals.