Wildlife Aid Brigade to the Rescue

On Sunday, May 17, volunteers rescued a mother and four baby ducks in the launch of a pilot program called the Wildlife Aid Brigade. The project involves volunteers interested in directly helping wild animals. It was created by Sue Lunson Farinato, a Maryland wildlife rehabilitator, to protect wild animals and to assist animal shelters with the wildlife calls that they receive every day.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington is the first shelter in the metro region to implement the new program. So far one AWLA volunteer has completed the wildlife training and two more are in progress.

On Sunday afternoon a caller from a pool at a large high-rise apartment complex in Arlington reported that a mallard female and her ducklings were unable to get out of the pool. Our Wildlife Aid Brigade volunteer, Tracy Coppola, accompanied by Sue Farinato, responded. Sue described the rescue:

The staff at the apartment complex was very helpful and accommodated our every request. We rigged up a raft in the corner, covered it with towels and waited for the babies to find it. They were getting tired, and mother kept hopping in and out of the pool. Finally she got out of the pool near the raft and the ducklings hopped onto the raft then out of the pool.

Meanwhile I had contacted Lee Prouty, one of the WAB instructors very experienced in waterfowl rescue. She called a Virginia rehabber, Jim Snyder, who came out to assist us. We could not leave the mother and babies there, because the pool ourtyard was entirely surrounded by a 3' wall. The mother could not have led the babies to food, and there was nothing but concrete inside the courtyard. Jim arrived and we came up with a plan for capturing them.

Extremely careful work allowed us to get within a few feet of the mother, and Jim netted her. Tracy and I caught the babies, and they all were put in the same carrier for transport to Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary, only a short distance away. …. While we can't actually relocate most species, waterfowl is one which we can!

This rescue demonstrates the time, care, and knowledge required to help wildlife in our urban environment. We hope more volunteers will join this exciting program.

Rabid Fox in Arlington

A gray fox ran up to a woman in her south Arlington yard and bit her on May 9. A neighbor drove the fox away by throwing an oil can at it. Police, emergency medical technicians, and animal control responded. When animal control officers arrived, the fox was under an emergency vehicle biting the mud flaps. Officers netted the fox and brought it back to the shelter and euthanized it. It was sent for testing at the Virginia state laboratory, and on May 13 the lab reported that the fox tested positive for rabies.

The woman who was bitten is receiving anti-rabies treatment and is expected to have no long-term effects from the bite. The Arlington County Public Health Division sent an alert to local Civic Associations to identify any other people or animals who may have been exposed. While a rabid fox attack is extremely rare in Arlington, it illustrates the importance of keeping our distance from wildlife.

“Rabies is endemic in our area. People need to be aware that there are wild animals, including foxes, in many of our neighborhoods,” said Richard Cole, chief of the County’s Environmental Health Bureau.

We receive calls every day from Arlington residents concerned about wildlife. As more and more land is built over, wild animals are forced to live closer to human beings. Wild animals play an important role in our environment: for example, bats eat mosquitoes and foxes eat insects, rats, and mice. Also, observing our native species is an exciting way to connect with our natural world.


Residents can take steps to discourage wildlife from living in their yards: remove attractions, such as garbage or pet food, and keep your yard free of debris that could serve as habitat. Neighbors can work together to make their community less inviting to wildlife. If your neighbor is leaving pet food outdoors or intentionally feeding wildlife, educate them about the danger of coming into close contact with some wildlife. Even bird seed that falls on the ground can attract mice and rats, and these attract foxes. We can also take the essential step of keeping our dogs and cats current on rabies vaccinations.

The likelihood of encountering a rabid animal is extremely rare, but there are cases of rabies every year. Animals that test positive most often are raccoons and feral cats. We haven’t had a rabid fox in Arlington in years. The great majority of wildlife seen in Arlington is healthy, but signs of illness include having trouble walking, walking in circles, and staggering. If you see an animal exhibiting these signs of illness, call the League immediately at 703-931-9241.

New Year, New Blog

It's a start of the new year at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, and we're starting a new blog about shelter life. There is so much that goes on here that goes beyond intake of animals and adoptions. We will use this space to report on the daily activities that constitute fulfilling our mission of promoting animal welfare.

Right now we have an adorable litter of six kittens that we are holding while their foster mother was out of town. She is picking them up tonight so that they can continue to thrive and get big enough to be adopted.

Another cat is living temporarily in our adoption manager's office because he has some health issues that haven't completely cleared up. He is making himself thoroughly at home and giving our shelter mascot cat Brutus serious competition in the congeniality department.

Rocky, a goofy Labrador-Sharpei mix is recovering from having most of his tail amputated. He is such a happy guy that he whacked his tail against things so much that he severely damaged it, and the vet recommended removing the whacking part. Rocky is recovering beautifully and still wags his very short tail just as much as he did before. He is eight years old and large so maybe that's why no visitors have noticed his charming personality.

Our Education Room is being decorated for a child's birthday party. The five-to-eight-year-old party guests will a tour of the shelter. Sometimes the birthday child asks for gifts for the shelter animals instead of for him or herself.

In winter the number of animals coming into the shelter usually decreases, and our kennel staff gets a much deserved breather from working nonstop to care for over 200 animals each day. In particular, the number of cats coming into the shelter is less in the winter as cats reproduce primarily in the late spring and summer. Instead of having over 100 cats as we do in the summer, today we have 53. In winter older cats have a better chance of catching visitors' attention because our cat room isn't as full of cute kittens.

If anyone thinks that living in urban/suburban Arlington means they won't encounter wildlife, that theory was disproved today when a neighbor e-mailed us a photo of a hawk gripping a pigeon that it had just killed on their back fence.