Article in Daily Record July 14, 2008

Rehabilitator Gets Creatures Ready for the Wild
MICHAEL DAIGLE, DAILY RECORD

Kelly Simonetti wants the fawns, raccoons and squirrels under her care to be afraid of her. It is a sign, said Simonetti, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, that the animal's natural survival instinct has emerged after time in captivity to recover from injuries or after being removed from a homeowner's attic.

She points out one 14-week-old fawn standing in a far corner of a pen while the others huddle around Simonetti and her visitors.

"He does not want anything to do with me. He is what you want a deer to be, because he will not go up to anyone in the wild," she said.

Simonetti, who also works throughout Morris County as a contract nurse/administrator, operates Antler Ridge wildlife sanctuary on property in Frelinghuysen Township, Warren County, where in 2001 she and her husband, James, a Roxbury police lieutenant, bought a preserved farm and built their new home.

"This started small. We tried not to publicize it so people would not just bring us animals," she said. "They need to have an assessment of the animal done before they bring it here. Sometimes an animal needs a veterinarian, not me." The facility is not open to the public, and all animals are dropped off by appointment.

The center recently was granted status as a 501-3C non-profit agency, Simonetti said. That will allow her to apply for grants to help offset expenses which last year were $8,700. When donations don't cover the costs, she said, the rest comes out of their own pockets. Ten volunteers offer their time and five area veterinarians consult, providing care and guidance, Simonetti said.

The facility is licensed by the state, which requires strict documentation of the arrival, treatment and departure of each animal, she said. The data help state officials track the presence of rabies and deer-related conditions such as black tongue disease and chronic wasting disease, Simonetti said. Last year the center treated 240 animals, she said. Antler Ridge is home to 30 fawns 22 raccoons, an assortment of squirrels and opossum, goats, sheep, three llamas and a squad of Guinea fowl. There also is Abraham, a white domesticated duck who was raised in captivity, is afraid of water, and, Simonetti said, lacks any and all natural survival instincts.

"He doesn't get it," she said, laughing. "He doesn't know how to run away from anything." Abraham, she said, stays inside a fence and has become an unofficial babysitter for very young fawns. As they move to other pens before their eventual release, he sits under the wood rail of the fence next to the wire barrier.

All the animals have been rescued, she said. One goat was removed from Seton Hall University, where it apparently was used in some fraternity prank, Simonetti said. "I got a call about a goat being tied up on a roof at Seton Hall," Simonetti said. Many of the deer were injured by cars, or abandoned as fawns after their mother was killed by a car. Raccoons and squirrels are sometimes removed from an attic, she said. Two large sheep were taken off a farm that was going through foreclosure, she said. They needed trimming and hoof care. They are basically pets, she said, although she has a customer for their wool.

The llamas, purchased at auction from the Catskill Game Farm, which closed a few years ago, are for protection. They act aggressively in the presence of predators, Simonetti said. They bought two llamas, she said, and were surprised a few months later to find a third in the pen.

"What's that goat in there for?" Simonetti recalled asking before she realized it was a newborn llama.

The Guinea fowl are a natural tick defense, Simonetti said. Once old enough, they freely roam the property eating ticks and other insects.

Simonetti said she will not take in bears, foxes or coyotes. Bears are too big and too expensive to care for, and the presence of a fox or coyote would upset the other animals, she said, adding that other area sanctuaries take them in.

Simonetti got her animal rescue training at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison. That center and hers maintain a relationship. "I was working with cats and dogs, And they do animal rescue, getting all the raccoons and skunks," she said. "I'm thinking this is silly. I'm going to Madison, and taking kittens here, and they are taking wildlife somewhere else. So I said, why don't we switch? You send the wildlife here and keep the cats and dogs there."

The arrangement has worked, she said.

"It's a good partnership. They have so few places to release wildlife. There are just so many animals that can be released into the Great Swamp (National Wildlife Refuge) or in Madison, Chester or the Mendham area," Simonetti said.

Wearing a tan dress that she wore earlier to a nursing assignment, and calf-high rubber boots spotted with animal dung, Simonetti stands among a crowd of fawns younger than 12 weeks. They sniff at her dress as she places bottles filled with formula in a rack, which the fawns immediately push toward. She tells a visitor not to stare at their faces or make eye contact with them.

Simonetti said she does not want the animals to associate a human face with their feeding, but only to register the rattling sound of the glass bottles in the wooden rack. These animals soon will be on their own and, beyond a return to health. The best gift she can give them is the will to survive.

Simonetti knows that many do not. They are lost to disease, cars and hunting. But, she said, even hunters have learned that they need not wipe out the entire deer herd because they actually need the herd to survive.

She puts paint on fawns' ears to distinguish them from other deer when they're released, but beyond that there is no effort to track their movements or survival. "We release fawns with a breakaway collar so I can track them for awhile," Simonetti said. "But there is no effort to determine a survival rate, no after-release data. They don't get chipped, collared; we really don't know."

Simonetti releases squirrels when they can open a hard nut such as a walnut or hazel nut. Raccoons in 12 weeks develop the fear of humans that helps them survive, Simonetti said. As she watches the animals heal and grow, Simonetti said, she sees traits emerge that might indicate how well they will do in the wild: domination, a pack leader, who holds the most nuts, builds a better nest.

She said the animals are released on about 200 acres that surround their 117-acre farm, or in a nearby 300-acre preserved forest. There is plenty of room for squirrels and raccoons, she said, and the newly released deer seem to be accepted into the existing herd. Last year, she said the Highlands Council established cluster zoning rules that in part were designed to respect traditional animal migration routes.

"It was not just to preserve the land," she said, "because this was part of a land bridge, a migration route for some birds and wildlife that travel from New York State to Cape May." Simonetti said the animals appear to disperse quickly into the habitat, so she is not worried about creating overpopulation.

"We are not tipping the balance of nature. It's not like we're releasing millions of animals," she said.

"I will worry about that when the raccoons come knocking on the back door."