LAKE COUNTY ? From frogs to birds to bear cubs, scores of Lake County wildlife have Sandie Elliott to thank for her 10 years of tending their sicknesses and wounds.
Now, after a combined 30-plus years of volunteering her time and resources at near fever pitch, Elliott is retiring Sept. 1. She said no one is prepared to take over the operation for her. As a result, the future is uncertain for SpiritWild, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation non-profit she founded in 1999.
“Wildlife gets in trouble 24 hours a day. This is not something you do for eight hours and go home, and you don”t get to take the weekend off,” Elliott said.
The job requires at least two years of full-time experience working with wildlife and a willingness to work hard for no pay, according to Elliott.
“I”m hoping someone will come out of the woodwork to take it over. They would be able to use our facility for a year but then they would need to build their own,” Elliott said.
She and her husband built two buildings on their private land for the rescue operation: one for emergency care and intake, the other for long-term care and rehabilitation, including an aviary.
She”s rescued fawns, eagles, chipmunks, rabbits, muskrats, turtles, lizards, snakes, frogs and various species of birds ? not to mention the occasional bear cub and bobcat kitten. The bottom line is that SpiritWild doesn”t turn away any animal that needs rescuing.
Large adult animals, including deer, mountain lions and bears need to be reported to other agencies, but the non-profit holds them if need be until they can be transported either to zoos or to state agencies for testing and rehabilitation.
Elliott”s work with wildlife really began in Quincy in 1987, when she was raising chickens and began selling eggs to her neighbors and friends. When the demand for eggs rose, she upped her production, began selling the chickens and soon became known as “the chicken lady.”
Elliott said it only took about a year for people to start bringing her injured raccoons and other animals. Her farm filled up with rescued animals, and her neighbors began calling her “Mother Nature.” Elliott reported her rescue operations to the local Department of Fish and Game captain, but he didn”t tell his boss. When word got out, she found herself facing jail time.
“The captain said sign this or go to jail, and I was a wildlife shelter,” Elliott recalled.
She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in avian science from the University of California, Davis, and became a certificated emergency medical technician.
Elliott said she wants to reclaim her life after feeling like a prisoner to the job, constantly on call for whatever kind of animal needed rescuing. Many of her facility”s inhabitants need to be fed and tended at all hours of the day.
Calls come in from around the county at a pace of 11 a day on average, and approximately two-thirds of the callers ask her to drive over and pick up the animals. Out of the approximately 4,000 annual reports of injured or sick wildlife, Elliott said only 600 come in to her facility on average.
“It”s really unfortunate, because people choose not to bring the animals in so we don”t know what happens to them,” Elliott said.
Elliott said she hopes to focus her efforts on forming a wildlife and nature center that where schoolchildren could volunteer and learn about topics ranging from parenthood to first aid to biology.
For more information, call SpiritWild at 928-6665.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
