Everyone Heals When Abused Kids Care for Abused Animals

In a bird cage as big as a high-ceilinged living room, with new-fallen leaves providing a golden carpet and wooden slats slicing the autumn sunshine, two broadwing hawks stared and blinked at two adolescent boys.

Birds and boys alike looked a little frightened, but they had a lot in common. All had found a haven at Green Chimneys, 60 miles north of New York City. And they were helping each other to heal.

One hawk was rejected or lost by its mother. The other was hit by a car on Interstate 684. The two youngsters are among residents at the home for children with emotional problems, learning disabilities and unhappy homes.

Green Chimneys believes animal-assisted therapy, especially with animals in need, gives the children an added sense of responsibility.

“We take abused, unwanted, abandoned animals and abused, unwanted, abandoned kids, and we let them interact,” said Paul Kupchok, the 50-year-old director of farm and wildlife. “The kids tend to the animals, and they learn that in return they get self-respect, a sense of accomplishment and unconditional love.”

Mr. Rogers Gives Program Thumbs Up

Like any institution that takes in troubled children, Green Chimneys has its problems, but the use of wounded animals in therapy is considered a pioneering success.

Fred Rogers, longtime host of television’s “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” is a fan of the concept. “When wounded children take care of wounded animals, they all have a better chance of being healed,” he said. “The people of Green Chimneys see this happen on their special farm every single day.”

Kupchok seems to relate equally to kids and animals. “Some of our best teachers can’t talk,” he said. They don’t ask why the kids are here, he added, and they don’t react to race.

The boys, 12 and 13, who were eyeing the hawks, boasted of being old hands around animals. The younger boy proudly claimed that he got along with all of them except the condor. “That bird has a look, not a friendly look,” he said. “The other animals I can get close to.”

He said the creatures “help me understand myself, and then I get along better with other people. If you want to talk to them, nobody says anything about it.”

The older boy observed, “I didn’t think much of myself until I got to work with the birds and animals.”

Brenda Chipkin, a wildlife rehabilitator at Green Chimneys, said the children “develop a respect toward something in need that they realize they can do something about. It leads to respect for each other.”

Kupchok said the kids think of themselves as society’s throwaways “until they get here and they see how much good they can do. We turn service-receiving kids into service providers.”

The 12-year-old recalled taking goats and guinea pigs to a home for disabled children in Yonkers and helping some of the residents to pet the animals. Green Chimneys residents also help train dogs that aid disabled people.

“We meet people who are worse off than we are,” the youngster said. “Sometimes it’s just awful. We realize we can help them, and that makes us feel better.”

Green Chimneys, founded as a private boarding school in 1948, became a state social service agency in 1974. The 150-acre spread is home to 102 young people, almost all boys, ages 6-21. Most failed to thrive in foster homes after they were taken from their families. They average two to three years at Green Chimneys.

They have a full schedule of classes, but as teacher Jessica Tanner said, “It’s not just the three R’s. Social interaction is very important.”

Although the work is hard, Tanner, 26, said, “I get to see the ‘Aha!’ moment when you finally connect with these kids who’ve had such a tough time.”

The 400 animals at Green Chimneys have been assembled somewhat chaotically. There are fish and ferrets, chickens and vultures, guinea pigs and goats. Farm animals and pets dominate, but Kupchok has taken in many exotics: emus, llamas, miniature horses, Vietnamese potbellied pigs, all once-trendy pets dumped by their owners. There are several young horses saved from slaughter after they were foaled by mares who were impregnated for the hormone they produce. The Andean condor is there as part of a breeding program the farm takes part in.

New York City has contributed a whitetail deer found outside an upper Manhattan subway station and a calf that escaped a Bronx slaughterhouse.

The farm gets state funding but relies on donations for about 10% of its budget.

The goal at Green Chimneys is to restore its residents, human and animal, to health so that they can be released. On this golden fall afternoon it was time to release the hawks, and the boys had been invited. Staffers wanted them to take hope from the birds’ recovery.

So before he netted the hawks in the room-sized cage, Kupchok sat the boys down and made sure they didn’t miss the point.

“These birds don’t belong here anymore,” he told them. “They were here because they couldn’t fly, they needed help and we helped them. I’m sad that they’re leaving, but I’m happy they can go.

“Just like when you’re ready to go, I’ll be happy that you can, but I’ll be sad because I’m going to miss you.”

Birds, Boys Ready to Fly

The boys watched, transfixed and apprehensive, as Kupchok expertly captured the brown-and-cream predators, doing his best to avoid their sharp beaks and needle-like talons. When he held the younger hawk, pinning its feet and wings with one hand, the 12-year-old saw it tremble and in sympathy said, “It’s scared.”

Then the birds were placed in pet carriers, the windows taped over to keep them calm. Kupchok and the boys drove 60 miles and hiked to the top of Mt. Schunemunk in Orange County, where broadwings had been seen migrating in kettles that sometimes number thousands of birds.

The boys were entrusted with the crates for the climb. “Keep them level,” Kupchok urged as they climbed the mountain. At the summit, John Shaw, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer, put metal bands on the birds’ legs. Then Kupchok asked the boys if they wanted to say farewell.

“Good luck,” the 13-year-old called. “And don’t come back.”

With that, the birds pushed off, tested their great wings and soared.