Care of the Wild

It was just after 2 a.m. when the emergency hotline rang.

Rebecca Dmytryk woke from a deep sleep and clambered for the phone.

“Hello,” she mumbled.

“There’s a coyote that was hit by a car,” a caller said. “It’s lying in the road and he’s barely moving.”

Dmytryk perked up, threw on a pair of jeans and grabbed some bags filled with medical equipment. She hopped into her car and drove from her Calabasas home about eight miles to Malibu, praying that the coyote was still alive.

By the time she arrived, the animal was dead.

“After a while, you get used to the deaths,” Dmytryk said. “But it’s always disheartening when we lose an animal.”

Dmytryk is not a licensed veterinarian, but her love for wild animals compelled her to open the nonprofit California Wildlife Center on Piuma Road a month ago to help rehabilitate injured or ailing woodland animals and raise orphaned creatures with the intent of releasing them back into the wild. The facility serves a 200-square-mile territory, from Calabasas to Pacific Palisades to Malibu.

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Trained volunteers treat injured animals found in the wild. If injuries are too severe, the animals are transported to the center.

“There really is a need for the center because there are no agencies to care for the wildlife out here,” Dmytryk said.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation donated three acres of developed but rundown parkland to the center’s founders last year. Although the old home on the property was falling apart, eight months of reconstruction converted the space into offices and examination rooms.

The center, which operates under a permit granted by the state Department of Fish and Game, has a $100,000 annual budget, with funds coming from donations, grants and $30 annual dues from the center’s 500 members.

Officials with the state agency said the center answers a need in the area.

“We’d lose more animals to the onslaught of human encroachment if it weren’t for rehabilitation centers like this,” said Patrick Moore, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game. “It’s definitely a better option than letting these animals die.”

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About 90% to 95% of the injured animals treated at the center are victims of poison, shootings or were hit by a car, Dmytryk said.

“People freak out when they see wild animals in their yards, and they don’t know what to do,” she said. “They think killing an animal is the best thing to do, but it’s not.”

On a recent day, Dmytryk, 37, walked around the three acres that surround the center, greeting the opossums, ducks and squirrels at the facility, but keeping her distance. Too much human contact, she said, will tame the creatures and keep them from surviving in the wild.

When the center is filled to capacity, an old trailer on the property will serve as a backup nursery for orphaned animals. Near the old house, a space has been set aside to wash animals caught in an oil spill. A netted duck pen already holds six orphaned mallards.

“I like working here because there’s so much variety, we always see something different,” said Dawn Smith, director of animal care at the center. “It’s very exciting to care for wild animals. It’s not your everyday kind of job.”

The Wildlife Waystation in the Angeles National Forest also cares for wild animals, but it has a different philosophy. While the Waystation cares for local wildlife as well as exotic animals, such as Siberian tigers and African lions, the California Wildlife Center cares only for creatures native to the Santa Monica Mountains.

The Waystation keeps some animals in captivity that could not survive in the wild, while Dmytryk said her wildlife center will euthanize those unable to return to the wild because of severe injuries.

“I believe it’s more cruel to keep an animal in captivity than to euthanize it,” she said.

Volunteers at the center undergo animal care and handling classes led by Dmytryk. She was trained during internships at other animal care centers and in classes with the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council in Suisun City--about an hour southwest of Sacramento. To keep the center’s Department of Fish and Game permit, she and others at the facility are required to attend yearly classes.

Dmytryk began rescuing wildlife as a child. She recalled bringing snakes, lizards and mice to her Bel-Air home and keeping them in her bedroom. The childhood menagerie grew into a love for wildlife. Most of her jobs in her adult life have involved animals, ranging from pet groomer to animal rights activist. By 1996, she established a wildlife paramedic-style service in Malibu, a precursor to the new center.

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“My parents didn’t teach me to fear wild animals, but to respect them,” Dmytryk said. “They reminded me that we’re living on their land.”

Since the animal center opened, officials have been flooded with phone calls about orphaned and abandoned wildlife. If a young animal cannot be reunited with its mother, volunteers raise it to adulthood and then return it to the wild.

Six young opossums recently lost their mother when it was struck by a car. Dmytryk and other volunteers scooped up the 4-week-old opossums and brought them to the center.

Volunteers wrapped the creatures in a small, white towel and carried them like babies. The opossums suckle on plastic syringes filled with formula. The task requires silence, since their tiny ears are extremely sensitive, Dmytryk said.

“Opossums are actually sweet little animals,” volunteer Melody Miller said after nursing the animals.

“Being here is a learning experience. It’s really opened my eyes to see the importance of every animal.”

To report an injured animal call (310) 457-WILD.