The Atlantic Wildlife Institute rehabilitation and education centre is in dire straits this summer due to lack of funding and diminishing resources. And unfortunately it’s an all too familiar situation for Barry Rothfuss and his wife Pam Novak, co-founders and full-time operators of the facility in Cookville, NB.
The institute has been in operation for 15 years and Rothfuss says that up until last year they’ve been able to survive on private funding. But because of recent economic downturns “there just isn’t enough money to go around,” Rothfuss said at the institute’s educational centre on Thursday.
Its rural location also means that individual donations are more difficult to come by, and although they are greatly appreciated are not enough to pay the bills over the long term.
After closing their doors last summer, Rothfuss went to the provincial government and the Department of Natural Resources. Five months later the DNR proposed a one time grant of $50,000, which allowed them more time to determine if they would be able to survive in the future without government funding. The Department of Natural Resources stressed that the grant given to the AWI in the winter was a one-time only contribution and the institute was expected to handle the rest on its own.
Rothfuss says he appreciates “the one time thing but it was drained very quickly and I had to go back yet again.”
They were given the opportunity to present their case for additional funding to the Liberal party in the spring but by last month they were told it wasn’t going to happen again.
“It felt like we were kicked right back to where we started,” Novak said. They couple hasn’t been able to speak with anyone in the provincial government since then and they say they were surprised when a letter was published in a New Brunswick newspaper from the Minister of Natural Resources Wally Stiles. The letter clearly stated that the Department of Natural Resources had no intention of considering anymore funding for the institute and that its expectation was that the facility operate on a cost-recovery basis or a fee for service model as Rothfuss puts it.
“I guess we got our answer” Novak said. “It’s just bizarre that they won’t even sit down and talk with us.”
The government has given them only two options – shut down the rehabilitation centre or charge for services. Both of these options have potentially illegal outcomes. If the centre were to be shut down, people would continue to bring wild animals into their home, which is illegal and without the proper training is very dangerous for the human and the animal. The other option, charging for services, is also illegal.
All wildlife is property of the Crown and it is against the law to charge someone to care for sick or injured animals they don’t own and, Novak said, “no one owns wildlife.”
Being the only institute of its kind currently in the province, the wildlife rehabilitation centre has a jurisdictional accountability for the entire province of New Brunswick and they receive three to four thousand calls per year.
Rothfuss and Novak have only a few months left before they will have to close their doors to new wildlife, which is worrisome to the couple.
“What do you do with the thousands of people who are dealing with wildlife problems in their backyard, we can’t just abandon them,” Rothfuss said.
They’ve already had to turn away hundreds of calls for help, and because of this people are taking animals into their homes. Calls are coming into the centre everyday from desperate people wondering how to properly feed and take care of injured wildlife.
Rothfuss said he is frustrated and saddened.
“It hurts to ignore calls when you know you can do something.”
Rothfuss and Novak also consider themselves to be on the frontlines of public health and safety. The sick animals serve as warnings of animal-to-human communicable diseases, which can be extremely dangerous.
They feel their work is essential to the province in more ways than one and they are in a tough situation.
“Right now we are not capable of doing it but who else will?” Novak said.
If the Atlantic wildlife Institute were to close its doors to injured sick and displaced wildlife, New Brunswick would be the only region in North America without access to these important services. And currently the province is the only region without any publicly-funded resources of this nature.
In an investigation by the DNR, it was found that no provincial government provides operational funding to rehab centres unless they run their own. For example in Nova Scotia there are four private rehab centres and one provincially funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources for a grand total of five wildlife rehab centres. New Brunswick has one.
A spokesperson from the department stated that there are no plans to establish a provincially run wildlife rehabilitation facility in the province at this time and that members of the public who come across sick or injured wildlife should contact the nearest DNR office.
If some common ground isn’t found soon the Atlantic Wildlife Institute will shut its doors to wildlife rehabilitation by this fall.
