Letter from the Publisher

Giving a hoot

WHEN I FIRST READ OUR STORY ON THE OCALA WILDLIFE SANCTU-

ARY (OWLS) in this current issue, it brought back memories of my childhood when my family lived in Romeo. I was just 8 years old and I remember a baby owl near our house had fallen from its nest and was injured. No one from the local animal rescue office was in town so our family kept the owl for a few days until an expert was available to take it in. We bottle-fed the owl and it progressed nicely for a couple days when a lady from the animal rescue unit arrived to take the bird. After being nurtured back to health, the owl was successfully released back into the wild. I’m not sure if we followed the proper protocols or not, but at least it was a happy ending. What an awesome creature these owls are and how crucial they happen to be to our local ecosystem. That’s why the work at OWLS is so intriguing and important. The birds are not only beautiful, they are important.

Unfortunately, sanctuaries such as OWLS are few and far between as licensing is so complicated on the state and federal levels – not to mention the negative effect the COVID pandemic has taken on such facilities, much like most businesses. Thankfully for OWLS, founder and operator Keith Belisle is of native American heritage and as such is able to use a legitimate religious exemption for the number of birds kept at the facility. The downside is that because a religious exemption is used, they had to give up access to all state and federal grants, which makes private funding that much more important.

There are no domesticated animals at OWLS, which means these are animals that would likely be neglected otherwise. What a sad prospect that is for such majestic creatures like the different varieties of owls that live here and unfortunately become injured through someone’s cruelty or accident.

Thanks to folks like Keith Belisle and Ken Lane at OWLS, there are many more happy endings.

APRIL MEANS EASTER and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the wonderful moments with my daughter and her mother who worked with Robin Fannon to customize Easter eggs. In our youths, we always decorated eggs the old fashioned way and it was a special time for family members being together.

With Robin, though, this wasn’t the old fashioned way at all, but something a bit more exciting. Ever the health conscious individual, Fannon brought a whole new means of decorating eggs to the table: Instead of using the regular dies to color the eggs, she used fresh fruits and vegetables.

What started as a fun tradition of dying eggs turned into something more: an educational endeavor. Beets were used for dark red or pink colors, turmeric for shades of yellow, spinach for green, blueberries for blue and red cabbage for purple.

Dying eggs the old fashioned way was fun, but it’s time to move on to something that’s safer and also provides an extra element of creativity and craftsmanship. Out with the old dyes and in with the fruits and vegetables – thank you, Robin!

Until next month,

Ocala Wildlife Sanctuary

PHILIP GLASSMAN, PUBLISHER