Through Animals' Eyes: True Stories from a Wildlife Sanctuary - Softcover

Cuny, Lynn Marie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1574411306 ISBN 13: 9781574411300

Publisher: University of North Texas Press, 2000

Synopsis

Founded by Lynn Cuny in 1977, Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation (WRR) provides rescue, rehabilitation and release of orphaned, injured and displaced wildlife. WRR also gives permanent care, in large natural habitats, to indigenous wildlife who, due to severe injuries, have been deemed non-releasable. Permanent care is also provided for non-indigenous wild animals who have been victimized by the exotic pet trade, rescued from roadside zoos, or retired from research facilities. WRR rescues over 5,000 animals annually and maintains a 365-days-a-year wildlife emergency hotline. Through the stories of her experiences with the various animals, Lynn hopes to dispel the belief that non-human animals do not reason, have no emotions, show no compassion for each other and for other species.

Lynn’s stories from WRR range from the humorous to the tragic, from the surprising to the inevitable. The animals she describes range from the day-old field mouse to the three-legged coyote; from a fox-loving hen to the exotic and abused mountain lions, macaque monkeys and black bears. Always, she reveals the dignity of each animal, trying to survive in a world made cruel and dangerous by the thoughtlessness of humans.

About this title

About the Author

Lynn Cuny, Executive Director of WRR, began her rescue work at the age of three by saving the lives of earthworms after a hard rain. She serves on the boards of the Summerlee Foundation and the Ahimsa Foundation and lives outside of San Antonio.

From Kirkus Reviews

Inmate stories from an animal rescue sanctuary, heartening but also scolding and righteous, from sanctuary director Cuny. Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, founded in Texas 20 years ago by Cuny, tends for and hopefully returns to the wild ``injured, orphaned, abused and displaced wild animals.'' If the injuries are severe enough, the animals stay at the sanctuary for the rest of their lives. It is a rare and profoundly humanitarian operation, and one certainly deserving of our appreciation. Cuny includes here 31 vignettes of animals or animal groups that have found their way, for the short or long term, to the sanctuary. They are almost all animals victimized by human malfeasance, with Cuny charging in to save the creature and the day. Of the 5,000 animals the sanctuary ministers to annually, a few are exoticsmacaques and bobcats and mountain lionsbut by far the greatest number are raccoons, ducks, birds, fox, deer, coyote, even mice; all are welcome, from squirrel to timber wolf. All have a story, of being tormented in roadside zoos, caught in steel-jaw traps and fishing lines, rescues from the trade in unusual animals and from research institutions; and all exhibit a wonderful will to live. Unfortunately, Cuny's writing is schmaltzy and frequently over the top, as when she refers to one cat as ``this beautiful animal, this precious, mysterious, secretive, misunderstood, irreplaceable and majestic cat.'' Even worse, her tone exudes a pious superiority (``I was willing to do whatever it took''; ``I returned faithfully each night''); it isn't long before readers inexplicably begins to sense a guilty finger being pointed in their direction. There is an annoying aura of self-promotion at play, which detracts from the good deeds and alienates those who otherwise might have been inspired by the sanctuary's achievements. (88 b&w photos, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Book Club selection) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of North Texas Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1574411306
• ISBN 13: 9781574411300
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168