Every three months, Ross would drive his motor home from Florida to Indiana to film multiple episodes. It was in Muncie that Ross met a wildlife rehabilitator named Diana Shaffer.
“They adored each other,” said Kowalski. “He called her ‘the Bird Lady.’ Whenever he would go to film, she would bring him little animals she was rehabilitating.”
Ross fostered animals, too. He built an enormous cage just outside his Orlando home in which he nursed orphaned squirrels back to health. A walnut tree in the yard was popular with neighborhood critters.
“We have little power struggles over who’s going to get the walnuts, me or the squirrel,” Ross said in one episode. “Guess who wins? The squirrel has got a nest full of nuts and I have none.”
Diana was one of the first licensed wildlife rehabbers in the country, as states finally started taking wild rescue seriously. She should be remembered along with Ross, as these animals were usually ones she invested a lot of herself into saving.
Diana regularly began taking in injured and ill wildlife in 1963, eventually becoming licensed by both Indiana and the U.S. government as one of only six people nationwide at the time to become federally licensed. Soon after, she founded the Wildlife Resqu Haus, Inc., which remained one of the longest-running rehabilitation centers in the nation until Diana closed its doors in December 2013. At that point, after a 50-year career in wildlife rehab, she had taken in more than 13,000 injured, ill, or orphaned animals, nursing them to health when possible and then returning them to the wild.
Nowadays there’s a lot more legal framework about the use and display of rehab animals, so things like this don’t really happen anymore, so it’s not just a great memory of Bob, but also a pivotal time for wildlife rehab’s pioneering women.
The founder of the rehab I’m at was another of these pioneering women of that same generation. She passed about 10 years ago, but I work with her daughter who now is head of the operation, and her granddaughter who started in official capacity last year with me, and they tell me such great stories about this era where it was still the wild west and you could largely do whatever you felt was best or appropriate, but also the gains made by formalizing and standardizing some of the care and procedures and nutrition guidlines, etc.
It amazes me constantly that wildlife rehab being seen as a legitimate thing rather than an excentric hobby is barely older than I am, and it still has a surprising number of critics and lack of support in many parts of the world. Seeing all that goes into the care of animals, especially when taking on multiple species, it is such an superb accomplishment these people were able to achieve, almost entirely on their own.
(Archive)
Diana was one of the first licensed wildlife rehabbers in the country, as states finally started taking wild rescue seriously. She should be remembered along with Ross, as these animals were usually ones she invested a lot of herself into saving.
(Legacy)
Nowadays there’s a lot more legal framework about the use and display of rehab animals, so things like this don’t really happen anymore, so it’s not just a great memory of Bob, but also a pivotal time for wildlife rehab’s pioneering women.
That’s so cool!
The founder of the rehab I’m at was another of these pioneering women of that same generation. She passed about 10 years ago, but I work with her daughter who now is head of the operation, and her granddaughter who started in official capacity last year with me, and they tell me such great stories about this era where it was still the wild west and you could largely do whatever you felt was best or appropriate, but also the gains made by formalizing and standardizing some of the care and procedures and nutrition guidlines, etc.
It amazes me constantly that wildlife rehab being seen as a legitimate thing rather than an excentric hobby is barely older than I am, and it still has a surprising number of critics and lack of support in many parts of the world. Seeing all that goes into the care of animals, especially when taking on multiple species, it is such an superb accomplishment these people were able to achieve, almost entirely on their own.
Couldn’t agree more that it’s quite an accomplishment. I am so glad that people like her - and people like you - exist.
I just want to try to be a good neighbor for my animal friends ☺️