Archive for March, 2011

                                                                                                         Update

Fish and Wildlife have been taking wildlife rehabilitators and their volunteers to court for over a decade in hopes to achieve a ruling such as this.  The Division of Fish & Wildlife was finally successful.

Superior Court Judge, Charles Middlesworth Jr. of Atlantic County Superior Court, recently ruled that anyone possessing wildlife is the same as if they possessed contra ban.  I was found guilty of possession even though our volunteer group transfers wildlife to a licensed facility. I was fined $7500. 

This ruling affects all the citizens in the State of New Jersey in not allowing anyone to rescue orphaned or injured wildlife.  Citizens may now be fined or possibly arrested for doing so.  The Judge stated that no one may possess wildlife for one moment, for any reason.

Marybeth Bennett

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Other wildlife rehabilitators had their animals taken and killed by F&G.  One man in Central Jersey had his raccoons taken from their cages and put in carriers.  Bill Sleight, the rehabber, tried to help his raccoons as they reached their arms through the cage to him for help, but the conservation officers jumped him and held him at gun point.  They took the raccoons and put them in animal carriers, turned the carriers to face each other, and shot them through the carriers.  After that story I started the Animal Rehabilitation Alliance (ARA).  A decade ago there were over 130 licensed rehabilitators throughout the state.  Some cared for birds, others deer, or raccoon, or a combination of animals.  Now there are 23 throughout the entire state.  F&G has purposely eradicated rehabbers/ volunteers from helping the public with injured and orphaned wildlife.  This gap now leaves the public to handle the wildlife themselves or not at all.  No one wants to see the injured animals die; this is not good for the public or the animal.  It is a matter of conscience and public safety and the division seems to ignore that.

My first raptor was a Red tail hawk. Tonya showed me how to properly handle and care for the injured hawk (Lancelot). Lancelot had swollen feet, head, and lay down to sleep.  She showed me proper techniques on how to medicate and feed him.  I had the Ophthalmologist take a look at his eyes. The doctor was able to save the vision in one eye, but not the other. Lancelot made a full recovery from his other injuries.  He was a friendly bird, and became a wonderful lecture bird. His non-perfect condition dictated his need for care throughout the rest of his life.  Another bird I came across was an injured crow which was hit by a car and left in a trash can to die.  I was able to save the vision in one of his eyes, but the other was not salvageable because it became infected by fungus from the trash can. The antibiotics killed the fungus, but the vision was lost.  His wing had been broken and unfortunately it never properly healed and thus was not useable.  One of the crow’s legs was in perfect condition but the other had been attacked by maggots, which ate much of his muscle tissue by the time he was discovered alive in the trash.  His name was Mr. Messy, and the children loved him.  Not only did they respond to a bird they saw everyday outdoors, but they related to him being handicapped since the children knew handicapped children that attended their schools. That bird had such a will to live!

Although my avian rehabilitation license was not renewed, I still received calls from the public, and law enforcement officers such as local police, State Police and etc.  There was no one in the area but me to help people with injured birds.

The caging area where I kept the birds was on a 9 acre property 250 feet back off the road. It was not visible from the house on the front of the property or visible from the road.  A disgruntled tenant who was renting the house had not pay his rent and was brought up on animal cruelty charges for allowing a cat to starve to death. He was to be evicted from the house and in anger called NJ F&G and reported my caging area.

On October 30^TH 2004 F&G took all of my birds including Lancelot and Mr. Messy (they did not touch the pigeons as they are not regulated species). F&G, later that day killed all of them! I was told by F&G that none of the birds had the right to live.

I started going to fundraisers that I knew politicians would be attending.  Sometimes I didn’t know what the function was; I just wanted to meet people who may be able to help wildlife rehabilitators like me.  I made many friends, and was invited to come to the yearly event in Atlantic City held by the NJ Conference of Mayors (NJCM).  There I met Gary Shute, Regional Vice President of BP Energy. Gary and I became friends.  He took me too many different events introduced me to many people including Governor Corzine.  BP even paid for brochures designed and printed for the ARA.  Eventually Gary retired but I met a wonderful man named Barry Lefkowitz over two years ago.  We were introduced by a mutual friend at the NJCM Convention.  Barry has been a lobbyist for 40 years.   He believed in our cause and took me under his wing and taught me much about the political world and how it worked.  Little by little I met more politicians and developed relationships with them.  I didn’t realize how many nice people existed in Trenton.

 Because of the incident in 2004, I was given summons and dragged into court by NJ F&G and I was fined.  It’s ridiculous because the judges are not familiar with NJ F&G laws which are very vague and can be interpreted any way they so desire.  I still conduct rescues for injured birds with a few volunteers.  Sometimes we cannot transfer the bird to a licensed facility right away because we weren’t available due to working. We had to use the caging area temporarily until the bird can be transported by me or one of the volunteers.   The nearest facility is in Medford, which is about an hour and 20 minutes from where I live and have the caging area.

While learning to mingle politically, my mentor Barry has guided me on how to change the law and regulations, thus I recently drafted an outline for a legislative bill to pull the wildlife rehabilitators from the oversight of NJ F&G and put them under the veterinarians.  The Office of Legislative Services at the behest of Assemblyman John Burzichelli, our Prime Sponsor, wrote the bill language according to my outline; the bill was recently dropped into the Assembly and assigned a number, A3695.  I am still waiting on the Senate number to be assigned.  It has been a lot of hard work to get to this point, and I could never have done it without Barry, who became my best friend.  Although the legislation has been introduced, we are waiting for the Committee Hearings to be scheduled. Once we get the bill passed by both Houses of the legislature we will lobby the Governor to sign it into law.  There is still much work to be done to get the bill passed, however.

In the past I along with other wildlife rehabilitators and other supporters with the same concerns had met with NJ F&G, and Commissioner Lisa Jackson (who at the time was head of DEP which oversees F&G).  We were always told they would work on cooperation between the division and the rehabbers, but nothing ever happened.  We were all yes’d to death and ignored.  I continued my political quest in hopes to make a difference.  F&G were furious with my actions and again they visited the caging area trespassing on private property.   They observed two raptors to be transported to a rehabilitation center.  They took photos with their phone, then got a warrant to set up surveillance and recorded me caring for a number of pigeons out at the property.  When they arrived with search warrants on Thursday May 27, 2009 a month later, both birds had been transferred (we transfer them as soon as possible), I had received another great horned owl to be transferred late Tuesday night May 25, 2009. There is a 48 hour time period to transfer a bird out of one’s possession under the “Good Samaritan Law.”

 NJ F&G is very angry about my political activity and have acted in retaliation.  I was charged again with two counts of possession of regulated species and illegal transport.  In court the judge allowed the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) for F&G to amend the illegal transport charge to illegal liberation since the statue they tried to prosecute me with didn’t apply. The two charges of possession were dismissed, and I was fined $1000 for illegal liberation that no one can prove.  First I transferred it, then when that didn’t suit their needs I released it, well which is it?

I am to now appear in Superior Court as F&G is appealing the dismissal.  This appeal can be done all the way through The Appellate Court Division through The Supreme Court.  F&G has a 10 year statute of limitation which allows them to charge me at any time with anything they want to throw at me for 9 more years dating back to the most recent incident.  At this moment F&G are trying to charge me with criminal punishment instead of a civil state suit. That penalty would be 3-5 years in prison, and up to $800,000 in fines by their calculation for helping an injured bird.  The scary part is that if they lose in all the various courts, they can recharge me with a Federal statute to try me all over again (because of the 10 year statute of limitation).  When does it stop?  How much of State money are they wastefully spending on this case? They are trying to financially squeeze me to drop the legislation, but I will not.  Many rehabilitators present and former are counting on me.

October 30, 2004 has opened my eyes to the injustices which people in specific power positions can abuse innocent, good people who help their communities and give back to the earth.  I will carry the explicit memory of that day with me the rest of my life.  The horrible experience of such cruelty and stupidity of October 30, 2004 taught me to understand what the Jewish people went through in Nazi Germany.  In comparison it wasn’t people that the conservation officers abused and killed as in Germany, but they were my babies, members of my family that I swore to protect, keep healthy and safe.  I loved all of them, and they appreciated me; this I could tell by their disposition to me.  This experience has made me a harder, determined, more intellectually strategic person to carry out what is right.  I will continue to fight the wrong doings and try to correct them no matter what the cost.  The Division of Fish & Game is out of control. They do what they want when they want and they make up and enforce the rules as they go along.  This bill, A3695, will take their power away from F&G and allow wildlife rehabilitators the right to rehabilitate injured wildlife without fear or intimidation; there will be no more animals killed under F&G’s reign of terror, and those animals which have died in the past (Mr. Messy, Lancelot and others) will not have died in vein.  When it is all done and said the world will be a better place; the foundation will have been laid for others to be motivated, taught and successfully grow to do good work without fear.

Marybeth Bennett

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Tweety showed his intelligence quickly. He would stand on a chair in the kitchen and allow me to give him his medicine every day until the medicines were finished.  He was very smart.  Tweety had freedom of the house.  He would stay on my screened in porch all day, and in the evening I would open the door and tell him it was sleepy time.  Tweety would then fly through the house maneuvering himself sideways to fly through doorways on his venture into the bedroom.  There he would sleep on a clothes basket I set it up for him with his food and water in it.  (It was Tonya’s suggestion).  Tweety would sleep all night, but at 5:30am his routine called for him to go into the living room and sit in front of the glass door for about an hour before he went on the porch.  If I was not awake to let him out of the room, he would fly up and land on my husband’s chest while he was sleeping and stare at him.  My husband would then wake me and tell me my bird wanted to get up, and I would let him out of the room.  Tweety stayed for about a year, and one spring day decided to fly off.  I never saw him again.  What a wonderful bird.  Later the neighborhood children brought me an orphaned Blue Jay, and I phoned Tonya.  She gave me specific instructions on how to raise the bird.  I followed the instructions to the “T” and raised the bird until it was old enough to be released.  This experience for me was extremely successful and rewarding.  I had named the bird “Baby Blue”.

Word of mouth had spread that I took care of injured birds.  I received birds from as far south as Cape May and north to Mystic Island.  I would get calls all times of the day and evening.  Because of my passion, I started a non-profit organization called the St. Francis Avian Rehabilitation Center.   I was raised a Catholic and thought the name appropriate.  I learned that I needed a State and Federal license to care for injured regulated birds, so I applied to the State of NJ Division of Fish & Game who oversees the program to get my certification.  I had to undergo almost a complete year of training in Tabernacle NJ.  It took me an hour and 20 minutes to get there on my only day off from my full time job to do their required training.  The woman there was more raccoon oriented, and was hardly knowledgeable on birds.  I had more knowledge from hands on with Tonya.

Tonya helped me to identify the birds coming in, and she showed me how to identify broken wings, and wrap them.  I learned to care for and treat broken legs, spinal injuries, illness, head trauma, internal bleeding etc.  Since I was a NJ Licensed Optician, and had my own Optical Store, I worked with an Ophthalmologist which treated all types of eye injuries.  I don’t want to brag but treating eye injuries is my forte.

I eventually finished my apprenticeship as required by the State of NJ Division of Fish & Game and received a State License for avian rehabilitation for 1 year, and a Federal license for 2 years.  When I was licensed I started talking to other wildlife rehabilitators and found out about them having their licenses revoked for no reason. Inspections of wildlife rehabilitation facilities were given by NJ F&G for wildlife rehabbers. They would be told that everything was fine and yet later they would receive notification that their facility was horrible, out of compliance and they were to be shut down.  The majority of wildlife rehabilitators work out of their homes as volunteers and work full time jobs to support their efforts.  No paperwork was ever left with a rehabilitator at the time of inspection.  I myself was inspected five times during a one year period. The conservation officers would not just inspect the room where I had the birds, but they would go through my bedroom, through my underwear drawer, through my curio cabinet, and etc. When I questioned why they were doing that I was told that they are law enforcement and could do whatever they wanted.  They told me they wanted to make sure I didn’t have any species I wasn’t supposed to take care for.  My question was why would I hide it in my curio or any other place?

I tolerated this treatment for a year because I was told by other rehabbers that if you stood up to them F&G would revoke your permit.  The last inspection I told them that my lawyer had advised me that inspectors (conservation officers) were only permitted to inspect the area where the birds are kept, not search my entire house.  My permit was not renewed after that, nor would they sign off on the Federal Permit when it was sent to them for renewal at the end of 2002.

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October 30^TH 2004 was the most horrifying experience I have ever had!  I have heard the stories of what happened to other people, but I never thought it would happen to me. My story and their stories are why I started another non-profit organization for helping injured wildlife, to put an end to anyone going through this ever again.  The Conservation Officers from New Jersey Fish and Game were like Nazi’s.  I stood helpless as I watched them violently take my birds.  They had no knowledge and could care less how they were handling them.  I stood at the front of the cage with three large conservation officers in front of me with their hands on their guns threatening to cuff me and arrest me if I try to rescue any of the birds!  As I looked toward the cage, I saw one of the officers holding one of my Red tail Hawks by its feet upside down like a chicken.  Its head was bleeding and its wings expanded out hanging downward.  He was looking at me for help, but I could do nothing but cry. I was helpless to help them!  I had desperate thoughts going through my head of what I could do.  Could I take one of their guns and save my birds? No, I was outnumbered by three large men and going to jail for life wouldn’t help any animals. I had to stay focused.  I was weak with sickness as they violently chased and grabbed the frightened birds as they battered and put them in liquor store boxes that they couldn’t even stand up in.  I desperately cried out for Lancelot as I had not seen him.  He was probably already in one of the boxes.  Lancelot was a non- releasable Red tail Hawk, the first hawk I ever rehabilitated. His blind eye dictated his fate to always be cared for by me.  He was a great lecture bird. I was crushed and angry and so I decided that this was enough!  I had a flame under my rear-end when I started the non-profit organization The Animal Rehabilitators Alliance (ARA), but now that flame was a blowtorch!  I would find a way to take away some of NJ Fish & Game’s harmful and abusive power and save the animals in this state if it was the last thing I would ever do.  You have heard the old saying, “A woman scorned!”  I was beyond scorned!

The quest GOD put me on started approximately 16 years ago, although I was always an animal lover since I was a small child.  I was on my way to a wedding and found an injured pigeon on the road.  I took the pigeon to the wedding with me, and kept it in the car.  During the reception I would visit the car to give the bird water until I could get home and find it help.  When I arrived home, I was on the phone for hours calling lead after lead.  There was no one knowledgeable to take care of injured wild birds anywhere in the area.  I lived in Atlantic County, and at this time the Avian Rehab in South Seaville had been closed for quite a few years.  Somehow I was able to track a woman named Tonya which used to run the old avian rehabilitation facility when it existed in Seaville.  She had over 20 years experience with orphaned and injured birds.  Tonya agreed to take the bird.  The next day on my way to her house the radiator in my car broke, so I had to turn around and go home.  Unable to bring her the bird my husband drove us to a veterinarian after he was done work.  “Tweety” was treated with antibiotics, and was on his way to recovery.

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