By John Di Leonardo
Every day I get upwards of a hundred calls about injured, abandoned, or abused animals. Most of the time, callers want me or a member of my organization to rescue the animals ourselves, but with so many calls daily, we are forced to respond in person to only the most urgent or difficult situations while giving advice or walking callers through next steps over the phone for many cases each day. Some weeks I am thrilled by the willingness of the public to get involved, while other weeks are quite the struggle. This week has been overwhelmingly positive.
On Thursday, I responded to a call in New York City from an NYPD officer who stumbled upon a Muscovy duck in Flushing, Queens after she saved herself from a live slaughter market by escaping. Not only did the officer and his partner wait with the duck for an hour until I arrived, but they helped make sure she didn’t go into the road as I caught her.
On Friday, I took in a domestic Rouen duck who was abandoned at Heckscher Park in Huntington after a Good Samaritan called me looking for help. I promised I would take the duck but needed her to capture her as I was on the way to the veterinarian with another animal. She followed my directions perfectly and the duck is now in my custody.
On Saturday, I met with a store manager at a mall in Islip where a crow has been stuck for the past two months. I gave her a trap and some feed and she’s working on capturing the crow with the equipment and advice I provided.
On Sunday, I assisted two Good Samaritans in New York City with the rescue of seven baby red-eared slider turtles from the illegal pet-trade – only the size of a quarter, these non-native turtles were well below the federally allowable 4-inch carapace size. Rather than just calling me to report the illegal sales, the Good Samaritans used their voices to speak up and convince the sellers to not only pack up but also to surrender 7 of the turtles they considered their merchandise. Now, these turtles will live out their lives in a sanctuary, safe from a miserable life in a cramped tank or from being abandoned to the wild – endangering native box turtles who are threatened with extinction in New York State.
On Monday, I drove out to East Hampton to rescue two abandoned domestic ducks – one of whom had a large gash – likely from a fishing hook – in the bottom of her beak in which her tongue was dangling out. My partner Juliana joined me, but as the ducks were in a massive marina, we needed to recruit the help of the caller – named Markie – and a high school sophomore named Ben who was interning at the boatyard. As Juliana and I corralled the ducks to the shore with kayaks, Ben and Markie closed in from the shoreline. Both of the ducks were ultimately caught and the injured girl had a successful surgery to repair her jaw and tongue the next day.
On Tuesday, I got two more noteworthy calls. The first was about a hen with a wry neck – a condition where their head is twisted due to malnutrition – from a hatching project. A teacher had irresponsibly engaged in a hatching experiment and the teacher in the class next door and a custodian took custody of the little chick to try to help her. Within an hour, I garnered a commitment from the teacher to never again hatch animals in her classroom and a commitment from a sanctuary to give her a home. The second major call we got on Tuesday was about three cygnets – baby swans – in the middle of the road in Westhampton in the middle of the night. While I rushed out to help them, Good Samaritans stood watch, moving the birds to the shoulder and never leaving the scene for an instant. Upon examination, it appears someone hit one of the cygnets with their car, leaving her in the road while her two siblings cuddled and protected her. With the help of the Samaritans, I loaded the injured cygnet into my car to take her home for rehabilitation and carried her siblings to a nearby pond away from the roadways.
In each of these incidents, countless people saw animals in need but kept on with their day, not wanting to be bothered until someone was kind enough to not just give us a call but to get involved themselves. Without our help, they couldn’t help the animal, but without their help, neither could we. For this week’s Anuvrat, I invite you to make a small vow to never look the other way when someone needs help. If you see something, don’t just say something, but do something. You may just save a life.
(John Di Leonardo is the founding director of Humane Long Island. He was previously the Senior Manager of Grassroots Campaigns and Animals in Entertainment Campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He has a Master's degree in Anthrozoology from Canisius College. He also earned a graduate certificate in Jain Studies from the International School of Jain Studies (ISJS) in India. John can be reached at [email protected].)
