DNR: Leave wildlife alone this spring

As the temperatures rise, wildlife is becoming more active and that may mean finding injured or seemingly abandoned animals and their offspring.
 
Scott Frazier with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources spoke on the Afternoon News Wrap, stressing that people who try to help injured or lonely wildlife can do more harm than good.
 
"The general over-arching principle we like people to keep in mind is that wild animals are, in fact, wild animals," said Frazier. "They have certain tendencies to behave or defend themselves, particularly when they're stressed, such as an injury situation. That can cause animals to be a little more high-strung than they typically would be."
 
Frazier said if you come in contact with an animal that needs help, remember these two things if you try to capture or confine the animal. "One, we have to warn people the animal will bite and scratch because it's afraid. Two, many of these animals, grown or juvenile, can carry things that we can get that would be unsanitary or things that they can pass on to humans."
 
He encourages people who try to capture or confine an injured animal to handle it as little as possible, don't take it's behavior for granted, and make sure to properly sanitize yourself after any handling. However, the best plan of action is to call a wildlife rehabilitator.
 
Frazier said treating wildlife as pets can be dangerous to the animal's health. "First and foremost, it's not legal to make pets out of these animals, they're protected in their wild state. Secondly, if you treat the animal or adopt the animal as a pet, you will change it's life forever and in a lot of case, long-term, that may work out for a period of time, months or even years, and at that point there is very little that can be done with an animal that can be treated that way."
 
Frazier said sometimes, the animal will need to be in captivity their whole lives, but other times, the animal will need to be euthanized.
 
And, Frazier said that some animals that look abandoned are not. For example, adult deer will spend most of the time away from their young to prevent predators from finding the baby.
 
Lastly, Frazier encouraged household pets to be vaccinated against illnesses, such as rabies and distemper, regardless of their contact with wildlife.