A New Jersey woman who took in two abandoned baby squirrels
said she saw the animals taken away and was slapped with a fine after wildlife
authorities saw images of the critters that she had posted online.
Maria Vaccarella and her husband were surprised to find in
July an injured squirrel they had come upon in a neighbor’s yard had given
birth to two healthy babies and left the pair to fend for themselves.
“We left the babies out for 24 hours. No mom (came back) so
I decided to take them in,” she said.
Vaccarella treated the pair— whom she named Lola and
George— like her pets as she cared for them.
“I read up on them… I started feeding them puppy milk with
whipping cream for three months and started introducing other foods,” she said,
telling CBS New York that she fed them every two hours to build up their
strength.
Vaccarella posted photos of the siblings on social media to
the delight of her friends, who expressed how happy they were to see the
squirrels thriving.
“How sweet is that!” one person commented on a photo.
“You did a beautiful thing… saving those little babies!”
another person wrote.
But those pictures attracted the attention of state
wildlife officers, who visited Vaccarella on October 31.
“I was proud to tell them the story (of) how I saved them,”
Vaccarella said.
“I even asked if they would like to come in and see them…
If I had known it was illegal to have them I would have never let them (the
squirrels) in my home,” she said, noting that she reached out to a
rehabilitation specialist who had been unable to immediately take the pair.
Vaccarella told CBS New York she was happy to give the
squirrels to professionals and thought that was the end of it, but was
surprised to receive a summons in the mail for what she had done.
She pleaded not guilty to possessing captive game animals
and said she faces a fine up to $1,000 and up to six months’ jail time, she
wrote in an online petition to have the charges dropped and to find out where
the squirrels were taken.
“All I did was help these babies,” she wrote on the
petition.
Bob Considine, spokesman for the state Department of
Environmental Protection, which oversees the Division of Fish and Wildlife,
told Inside Edition that the civil penalty carries a fine of $100 to $500, but
no jail time as it is not a criminal penalty.
“We understand there are many people who take in wildlife
and have the best intentions, as clear was the case with Mrs. Vaccarella…
However, domesticating any wildlife for an extended period of time, which was
the case here, also puts these animals at great risk of being unable to survive
in the natural habitat, where they belong,” he told Inside Edition.
After the case was referred to the Division of Fish &
Wildlife by a New Jersey licensed wildlife rehabilitator who saw it on
Facebook, the department was obligated to follow through with an official
notice of violation of law. If they had not acted, they stood to be legally
challenged by the licensed wildlife rehabilitators, or anyone else, who reports
an infraction.
He said this is not a case the department is “focusing any
energy on.”
Vaccarella is due back in court on January 27.
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