Animals Haven’s No. 1 Priority

Bill Kepler and his 10-year-old son, Remy, peered into a rustic birdcage crafted from small tree branches and watched glossy green hummingbirds flitting among red geraniums, a favorite food source of the tiny creatures.

When they drove Saturday from their Pasadena home to the California Wildlife Center near Calabasas, they expected to see lots of other denizens of the wilderness at the animal rehabilitation facility. But the cage stationed in front of the nonprofit center’s main building provided about their only chance to get up close and personal with wildlife.

After touring -- from a discreet distance -- some of the heavily masked cages where sick and injured animals are nursed back to health, Kepler, an elementary school teacher, said he and Remy had learned a valuable lesson.

“Wild animals need to be wild, and just our presence can stress them out,” he said. “So it makes perfect sense that we can’t get too close.”

Executive Director Beth Caskie said that notion is a key difference between the nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation center and exotic animal operations like the one raided last week in Riverside County, where more than 90 dead tigers were found. That facility, known as Tiger Rescue, allowed the public to hold tiger cubs for $20.

“Our purpose is to raise animals with their wildness intact and then release them back to their homes in the same independent state,” she said.

On Saturday, scores of visitors strolled quietly through the center’s hilly three-acre compound near Mulholland Highway and Las Virgenes Road during an open house to celebrate National Wildlife Week, which ends today.

The center goes to great lengths to avoid human contact with the dozens of deer, coyotes, possums, raptors, squirrels and other native wild birds and animals in its care. In one pen, baby deer aren’t even allowed to see their caretaker, who stands behind a wall and feeds them by reaching down a tube with a bottle of liquid formula.

Visitor Nancy Margolis, 40, a Westlake Village resident who volunteers as a dog and cat rescuer, said she was outraged when she heard about the dead tigers.

“It made me feel terrible to think that those animals were in the hands of someone who couldn’t take care of them,” she said. “Sometimes I feel I’m not making enough of a difference, but at least I feel good about what I’m doing.”

Marc Pack, a computer programmer from Pasadena, was among several visitors who said more needs to be done to aid sick and injured wildlife.

“I think most people are naturally compassionate. But they don’t think they can do anything. They don’t know about places like this,” he said.

The sentiment was strongly seconded by Jeanne Van Blankenstein of Valley Village, who was there to check on the progress of an injured squirrel she dropped off at the center in early February.

“It took several phone calls to find a place that would help,” she said. “They’re going to release him in a couple of weeks, and I was thrilled to hear he’s doing just fine.”