Laura Quinn


Carrying an injured pelican to the hospital for treatment.

Laura Quinn must wonder what it is like to be a bird in the Florida Keys, for she feels so much compassion for them. Her worst thoughts are of injured birds, mostly victims of the very popular monofilament fishing line.

Quinn hates monofilament fishing line and she hates barbed fishing hooks. She perhaps wonders what it would be like to swallow one of those hooks, to feel its sharp point lodge in her stomach and grab hold. She imagines the ensuing panic, as she tries to rid herself of this fierce enemy inside her. What could she do? Instinct would have her convulsing and flailing her wings to break it free, causing her to become entangled in the fishing line, which would wrap around her legs and her wings. She would be unable to move, to eat, to swim, fly or walk, and none of her bird friends could help her, and she couldn't help herself, and anyone who could help her is her natural enemy and she would be terrified of them.

These are the thoughts that Laura Quinn must have when a wounded bird comes to her rehabilitation center on Tavernier Key. Fishing is a very popular sport in the Keys, and fishing line and hooks lace the waterways like vicious traps. Pelicans are very vulnerable to this hazard and there are usually between 25 and 50 of these birds at the center at any given time, joined by cormorants, herons, hawks and even a peregrine falcon.

"Hawks get in trouble either by hitting an electric wire," Quinn says. "or by getting hit by a vehicle while standing on the roadway, looking for bugs." Quinn shows me around the center, which is on a five and a half acre lot on the gulf side of US 1. She has rescued hundreds of birds since opening her original facility on Plantation Key, in 1984 and this one in 1990.

Pelicans are not the most adored bird in the sky, but Quinn treats as many as she can, with an almost blind passion for any bird's survival. "It's the balance of nature," she says. "Birds eat bugs, they transplant seeds - did you know that the hammock would not exist without the white crown pigeon?"

"The size of a bird population reflects the health of the habitat and the quality of the water," she says. Like the canary in the coal mine, birds are important indicators of the health of our environment, relying on clean and healthy air, water, fish and other animals and insects.

Though relying on donations, Quinn has managed to assemble an impressive facility for treating small animals. In the bird hospital is a surgery table, outfitted with surgical instruments. There is also an oxygen-fed cage, an incubator, and an X-ray machine. On the back porch is a small hyperbaric chamber Quinn is experimenting with to promote the healing of wounded extremities.

This hi-tech equipment is actually rather old and was obtained second-hand. "We get a lot of our supplies from emergency room nurses," Quinn says. "Many supplies have double packaging, and once the outside seal is broken - like when they prep for surgery - that item must be used right away, or thrown away - we can still use those, as long as one seal is good." One nurse kept a box in the O.R. labeled "Barbs' Birds," and when the box was filled, she would mail it to the rehab center. Even old panty hose make good slings and bandages.

When faced with sometimes apparent futility of her efforts, Laura Quinn stays positive. "It's a matter of respecting life," she says, "all kinds of life." One of her interns, Lauren Falkenberry, drove many miles down the keys last night to pick up a collared dove, an exotic bird that is not considered a critical part of the keys' ecosystem. Everybody was tired and no one wanted to make the trip, but it was made, and the bird is recuperating today. "I feel we're in charge of educating the people," says Quinn. So, the effect of saving this bird goes beyond the tiny creature. "If you're going to kill a collared dove," Quinn says. "you may as well kill your next door neighbor."

Quinn doesn't expect to change people's attitudes overnight. "There is a constant evolution of thought," she says. "Look at slavery; there were concepts and ethics years ago that we would be appalled at today." Laura Quinn is a patient woman, and she is willing to wait for change to come, willing to keep working with birds for life.

Have some old stockings or unused medical supplies which could be used for small animals? Send them to Laura Quinn, at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center, Tavernier Key, Florida 33070.

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