Wildlife Rehabilitators of Western New York

As wildlife and people continually clash - in highway accidents, hunting mishaps, and habitat struggles - a small group of citizens around Rochester, N.Y., has taken it upon themselves to help out the little guy. Private wildlife rehabilitators undergo testing and check-ins from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), rabies vaccinations, long hours and put in thousands of dollars of their own money to make sure that the injured and orphans are cared for. “Who are we to decide who lives and who dies?” asks Ashley Mcneil of ABC Rehab. “We give everyone the chance that they deserve,” adds her partner Becky Zielinski.

"I love Great Horned owls, they just hate your guts."

- Gary Zimmerman, Black Creek Wildlife Station

Gary Zimmerman, a private wildlife rehabilitator, attaches a tether to Clacker, a Great Horned owl, outside his home in Churchville, N.Y., on Oct. 2, 2021. Zimmerman was always interested in wildlife and a longtime hunter, but as he grew older, he said, “I began to hunt with my camera instead of my gun.”

Before her passing in 2014, his wife Patricia became interested in caring for small mammals like squirrel and rabbit kits. The couple gradually grew their operation into the nonprofit Black Creek Wildlife. Zimmerman puts in roughly $6,000 of his own money to care for the animals each year, and his backyard hosts several massive enclosures for his permanent residents and those just stopping in. Over 28 years, Zimmerman has cared for foxes, coyotes, possums, weasels, eagles, falcons, doves, and of course, owls to name a few. “I keep saying I’m going to retire,” Zimmerman said. “I’m going to be 80 in a couple years.” When asked if that was actually going to happen, he smiled, “No, probably not.”

“Raccoon season conveniently overlaps with school breaks.”

- Ana Maria Arroyo,
Hickory Creek Wildlife Rescue

Ana Maria Arroyo holds a skunk to her chest in an enclosure built in her Ithaca, N.Y., backyard on November 21, 2021.

Arroyo is a 21 year old Environmental Studies student at Ithaca College who runs Hickory Wildlife Rescue out of her parent’s backyard. She has worked with wildlife since she was sixteen years old and began volunteering with a local organization, which fostered her passion for rehabilitation.

She funds about half of the rescue expenses through her own money, which she earns through student employment at the college. The rest comes from donations.

This skunk was found wandering about in someone’s backyard, oddly friendly when approached. Ana Maria suspects that someone found it as a pup and raised it, then released it themselves once it got too big. “No licensed wildlife rehabilitation would have released this skunk,” she said, the skunk folded up in her arms. Since skunks are considered rabies species, they are disqualified from being education animals. So over the winter, Ana Maria hopes to make this skunk wild again, limiting its human interaction until it is ready to fend for itself.

“I love setting them free. Getting to watch them grow up, then go on to have happy lives. It makes it worth it.”

- Becky Zielinski, ABC Rehab

Becky Zielinski, left, and Ashley Mcneill cradle two of their charges; an opossum and squirrel so young that they still use an incubator in their Canadice, N.Y., apartment on Oct. 18, 2021.

The pair runs Ashley and Becky’s Critters (ABC) Rehab out of their apartment. Both women agreed that this year brought in an unusually large number of babies due to a long warm season, which led to late litters going into the winter months. Once the weather starts getting cold, the animals must stay over winter before they are released.

The young animals require regular feeding throughout the day, so Becky and Ashley juggle them and a full time job. They both work as servers at Applebee’s in Geneseo, N.Y., where their car can often be seen idling in the parking lot. This is because it houses newborns, waiting to be fed when they have a spare moment. Ashley said that once, a woman concernedly asked if there was a child in the car, to which she responded, “Yeah, like nine.” The orphans can only be handled until they are no longer hand fed, which is about the time they start to revert to their wild ways and are ready for release.

ABC Rehab’s Facebook page brings in donations for their cause, and a fan favorite rescue of late is a chipmunk named Melvin, who was struck by a car. He now suffers from a head tilt, but Becky has seen great progress in his condition and hopes that he will be released someday. Once his fur grows back and he proves he is capable of finding his own food, he will earn his freedom.

“We want to keep them wild.”

- Leland Brun

Leland Brun carries a rescued barred owl he has tended to for the past three weeks in his Honeoye, N.Y., yard on November 11, 2021. Brun can’t recall when exactly he started wildlife rehabilitation. He remembers caring for orphaned rabbits in his childhood, which sparked a lifelong interest in nature. “I think the regulations put people off of it nowadays,” Brun explained. “We need more young people to do this [wildlife rehabilitation].”After going to school for environmental science, Brun joined the Peace Corps and travelled the world taking photographs of Argentina and Antarctica in the name of conservation. When he started working for the DEC, the organization that licenses wildlife rehabilitators, he was disappointed in what environmentalism had turned into. In working for the state, Brun remembers writing a paper on the habitat destruction a new highway would cause. “But the state was in support of the highway,” he said.

“It’s not enough.”

- Melissa Curtis

Melissa Curtis hoists Elliot out of his cage as Boo peeks over her shoulder in her Rochester, N.Y., home on Oct. 17, 2021. Curtis has been doing wildlife rehabilitation out of her house for around 11 years. Before starting as a rehabilitator, she worked at an animal emergency clinic, and saw so many wild animals come through that had no other place to go that she decided to create her own. She mainly deals with opossums because she can work with them for a longer period of time than most other wildlife. They are often brought to her as babies and must be four pounds for release, which can take around six months. Curtis explained that opossums are the only North American marsupial, and once the babies outgrow the pouch, they ride on their mother’s back. Orphan opossums usually come in when their mother is struck by a car or when they are accidentally dropped. “I would say around 90% of [the cases I see] are car-related,” Curtis said.

Boo, Curtis’s newest addition, was found orphaned. Curtis will keep her over the winter, until she is about four pounds and ready for release. Until then, she will be fed a highly controlled hand-mixed diet with specific levels of calcium and phosphorus designed to keep her as healthy as possible, something missing from most newborn animal formulas available. “It’s not enough,” Curtis said of the pre-made formulas. She has spent much of her time self-educating on wildlife rehabilitation in order to find the perfect opossum diet.