Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (YUWR) and Education Center

Dear S.F. Chronicle,

On October 12th 2010 you printed an article about the Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue & Education Center and our current eviction woes.
I am the director of Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue, Lila Travis, and I would like to make a request for a printed correction.

In the article entitled: “Yggdrasil wildlife center hopes for rescue” the following sentence was printed and the result has done some real damage to our struggling 501c3 non-profit organization.

“The Travises, who live on donations and grants given to the nonprofit wildlife center,…”

This statement is not only completely untrue, it has damaged the reputation of our 501c3 nonprofit organization, as well as the reputations of my husband and I.
Our wildlife center has received hate mail as well as requests for the return of recent donations made to save our wildlife center from donors who are under the mistaken impression, gotten from your article, that their money went towards living expenses for “the Travises” instead of towards the actual life-saving work we do here at our wildlife rehabilitation and education center.

The article was written by Carolyn Jones, a reporter we have read and respected for years. We have worked with Carolyn in the past and have found her to be a good reporter. She showed her integrity by responding to our inquiry about this major mistake with a sincere apology and correction to her online article. We appreciate her apology and that she corrected her mistake online, but the printed article is out there and the damage has been done.
We are requesting a printed correction be made so we can show it to those who have lost faith in our organization because of your article.

The Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue & Education Center, in Oakland, CA, is 100% volunteer-run and donation-funded.
Neither Richard nor Lila Travis have ever received any compensation for the 70-80 hours/week they each volunteer. Nor have they ever received any salary or benefited in any way from contributions made to our 501c3 nonprofit organization, other than the supreme benefit of seeing money put to good use in restoring precious living beings to their birthright in the wild.

We would have liked to have been given the opportunity to respond to the allegations in the article of “squatting” and “not paying rent” and having the house “overrun with animals“. Had we been given the opportunity to respond,  we would happily have shown proof that the rent has been paid in full every month for the last 6 years and continues to be, even though we are in the middle of a legal case against the landlady which has frozen all rent increases until it is resolved. Had we been given a chance to respond, we would have happily shown that there are no animals at all in the main house where we live, except our cat – not because of the wishes of the landlady but because we have a 2 year old child whom we keep separated from the wildlife animals for his protection. We would also have shown the numerous contracts and statements signed by Andrea Wood, the owner of this property, giving permission for squirrels, raccoons, baby deer, and other wildlife animals to be cared for on this property (including inside the main house).

We appreciate the S.F. Chronicle’s interest in our wildlife center’s work and we hope it continues in the future.
We truly thank you for highlighting the struggle our wildlife center is currently undergoing.
However, we really need your help in correcting the wrong impression that our wildlife center is run by human leeches, sucking away funds lovingly given for the welfare of the animals.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Lila Travis

Our first fawn of the year came to us a day after a young buck was shot by the Police here in Oakland. This fawn was only a few days old. His hooves were still soft, his ears still floppy. He was running down International Avenue at 42^nd in the heart of Oakland. He was crying as he followed a couple walking down the street. When they turned up 42^nd Ave, he followed them. When they stopped to talk with two women loading a moving van, he ran up and caught the hearts of the women movers. One of them went inside, found our phone number and brought the little fawn to us. It was 11pm when they arrived. This fawn, whom we called “Rono” from the story of Bambi, was very thin. Something must have happened to his mother for him to be this thin. He spent his first night here wrapped in a warm blanket, on a heating pad, his belly full of warm fawn formula.

It was 2 weeks later when we got the call from WildCare, the wildlife rehabilitation center in Marin we work with to rehabilitate orphaned fawns. They had just received a little 3 day old female who had been found on a construction site. Her mother had been chased off by workers and there was no safe place for the fawn to be placed so she could be reunited with her mother.  She came into care and nuzzled happily up to Rono. We called her Rowena.

It was two weeks later that the last of the Fawn Graduates of 2010 arrived. He was older and therefore more aware and wary of us humans. We called him Olaf or Oli for short. He was found running up a busy highway. The finders had placed him down the hillside away from traffic in the hopes he could be reunited with his mother, but hours later, when they drove past to check he was back up playing in traffic again. They saved his life by bringing him in. He had been starving and would have been hit by a car.

Volunteers collected fresh fruit tree branches daily to provide natural food forage for the fawns

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For the next few months they frolicked and played in our fawn pen, nursing from the bottle 2-3 times a day, learning about leaves, branches, fruits and veggies and listening to the coyotes howl at night as they hunkered down and froze. Life Lessons that would be useful once they were free.

Volunteers Shima and Richard carry the fawns up the hill from their pen to the van for transport to Bambi Bootcamp.

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Once weaned, they moved to Bambi Boot-Camp, with our wonderful volunteer, Stacy who runs the Greener Pastures Equine Care Facility. Here, in a giant fruit orchard, they grew up, lost their spots, but not their innocence.

Exploring their new enclosure

Ooooo Pears!

...and all the comforts of Home at the Wildlife Center: Organic Fruit Salad!

Wow - Look at our new digs

Look at our new Pet Human!

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Over the months, Stacy and her family cared for them by providing them a safe place, clean water and good food. Stacy watched them frolic and play, bounding over one another, chasing each other thru the Orchard, sleeping in a pile under the trees, standing on their hind legs and eating leaves, and watching the fence line for their nightly visitors – the older adult wild deer who would visit, no doubt to share stories about life in the wild and to offer words of warning.

Well, now they too are free to roam the hills.

Stacy says they are staying in a group together. She sees them at dusk and dawn roaming the hills above her home.

We will post updates on their transition as we learn more.

Although there were many other fawns who came to us in 2010, these three were the strong survivors. The others were too injured, too starved, too sick to survive, despite our attempts to save them. Thank you to all of our volunteers who spent late nights holding ill newborn fawns, dripping water into their mouths or just comforting them as they succumbed. In the name of those who did not survive, we tell the story of those who did.

Argh! We are still in full operation here, despite our current crisis.  4-5 animals per day have been arriving in need of care. A month or so back, the 1992 Jeep we have been using for rescue work, broke down and needs to be replaced. We changed over to our fallback vehicle – the van. Now the 1997 Pontiac Trans Sport is unable to pass the SMOG and we are not allowed to drive it! The situation is ridiculous. We need a new vehicle for the wildlife center to use for animal transport, emergency rescues, transport of cages etc.

We need an SUV or Minivan type vehicle that is year 2000 or younger, in good running condition (we cannot afford mechanic fees to fix it. If you would consider donating your vehicle, you can get the Full Fair Market Value for it in tax deductions because we would actually USE the vehicle and would not resell it -And you would be making it possible for us to continue to do our work!

The IRS has an information book about how to donate a car (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/pub4303.pdf) but here are the main points:

• make sure you can benefit – as in do you itemize on your taxes?
• determine the value of your car – this is a good-faith agreement between you, the donor, and us, the donee. Or if the car value is over $5,000 it would need t be professionally appraised. We would pay for this when you donate the vehicle.

If you are willing to help by donating your vehicle, please give us a call at 510-547-YUWR (9897) and THANK YOU!

Or – if you are a Mechanic willing to donate your labor to help get our Wildlife Center Van to pass the SMOG, please call too! 510-547-9897

Thanks for your time!

Tonight, a call came in. A scream in the dark, and cries of pain and fright.

A baby squirrel lost his mother and met a cat instead, when he left the nest to search for her.  His cries of terror were heard by a good Samaritan who, dropped everything to find out who to call on a Sunday night, when all veterinary hospitals were closed or too busy to tell her where to go. Finally she found Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue and, at 5 minutes to ten at night, made the call and rushed this traumatized baby to me.

He is hurt. He doesn’t move right. But more than, that he is just so frightened. Nothing comforts him.

He is not alone. Several days ago, a little female squirrel came in, the same age. She was starving in North Berkeley and spent days with her sibling, sitting on the ground in a playground. Her sibling didn’t make it but we got her. Depressed and lethargic, she has lingered, unresponsive to food or water. Minimal interest in the grapes. A few half-hearted grunts in response to my poor attempts to comfort her.

Tonight, Scared Little Boy and Sad Little Girl meet up in their kennel. Having never met before doesn’t matter.  She is Squirrel. She is home. He runs to her and buries his head under her body. She, who did not noticed when I gave her subcu fluids a moment before, lifts her head and I saw the light switch back on. Her interest flooding back. Life. Love. Feeling. She grabs him in a desperate embrace and rubbed her nose into his hair. Now there is reason to get better. Now there is hope.

Hello Everyone!

Just to give you all a brief update:   We have an extension on the Ellis-Act eviction until April of 2011. However, the landlady has raised our rent by 66%, from $1520 to $2500.  On September 21st 2010 we go to a hearing at the Rent Adjustment Board to determine if this rent increase is legal. The landlady is claiming that this house is exempt from all rent-limit laws due to the Costa-Hawkins ruling for the State of California.

We are hoping to have supporters attend our hearing. If you are available we would appreciate your support. I would rather wrestle an adult raccoon, but I will be there defending our wildlife center. Please join me if you can!

The hearing is at:

We are STILL seeking legal assistance so if you know any tenant lawyers who like animals and helping grassroots nonprofits, PLEASE let us know!

Thank you for your support!

Despite our crisis, we are still in full operation and we still need INTERNS to cover animal care shifts.

We are having 2 internship orientations this week:

• Wednesday 9/15 at 4pm
• Sunday 9/19 at 4pm

Please bring your completed Internship Application, a notepad and writing implement, and please wear shoes for walking on a slope and into animal cages.

PARKING: Carpooling is recommended as parking is at a premium here. Please be considerate to neighbors by not parking in their parking spots or blocking their driveway or blocking the dead end street. There is ample parking available at the top of Balsam Way (when you first pull into the street and you see the hillside of Rocks – lots of parking along here.) but it is a 1 block walk to us. Thank you for your help with this.

If you want to intern but cannot make either of these dates, please give me a call at 510-547-9897.

We look forward to seeing you!

Here are ways you can help:

• * Make a donation towards our emergency relocation fund (see sidebar)
• *Write to your local city council, to express your views about the importance of having a wildlife center and ask them to help
• *Write to the Mayor to express your views about the importance of having a wildlife center and ask them to help.
• *Contact us with any other ideas, suggestions, or if you have another way to help. CONTACT US

Thank you for your interest and your support!

Here are a few helpful Links:

In Oakland: Remind them that the work we do is important and does not duplicate what Oakland Animal Control does!

• officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com
• cityadministrator@oaklandnet.com

Oakland City Council

• jbrunner@oaklandnet.com
• jpkernighan@oaklandnet.com
• nnadel@oaklandnet.com
• jquan@oaklandnet.com
• idelafuente@oaklandnet.com
• dbrooks@oaklandnet.com
• lreid@oaklandnet.com
• atlarge@oaklandnet.com

We are not adverse to moving out of Oakland in order to save the wildlife center. We do need to stay in the Oakland/Berkeley/Alameda area to continue to do our good work here.

To advocate us moving to Alameda, please visit this website for the contact information of Alameda’s mayor and city council: http://www.ci.alameda.ca.us/gov/city_council.html

To advocate us moving to the Berkeley area, please contact the Mayor and City Council at: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=22466

Do you think it is a good idea for us to establish our wildlife rehabilitation & education center in the regional parks? Perhaps near the Little Farm, at the old “pony rides” stables that have been empty and unused for the last 20+ years? If you said yes, please write a letter to the East Bay Regional Park District and tell them so. Feel free to email us for content suggestions. Thank you!

East Bay Regional Park District
2950 Peralta Oaks Court
P.O. Box 5381
Oakland, CA 94605-0381

Or use their email form at this link: http://www.ebparks.org/contact

Thank you for your support. Together, we can SAVE OUR WILDLIFE CENTER!