PEOPLE OF INTEREST
The ANIMAL RESCUER
82
ED DRONDOSKI
Winnie Burns, founder of Creature Safe Place west of Fort Pierce, greets
Belle, a white-tail deer that she pulled from her slain mother’s belly. Belle
now returns the favor by acting as a surrogate mother to orphaned fawns that
>> are brought to the wildlife rehabilitation center.
BY GLORIA TAYLOR WEINBERG
Most days, Winnie Burns works sunrise to
sunset — and sometimes beyond — to rehabilitate
wounded, discarded, mistreated or
unwanted animals.
At Creature Safe Place, west of Fort
Pierce, all God’s creatures, large and small, find the love
and compassion that many never knew.
The wild ones are released if they recover enough to
make it on their own. The others — as many as Winnie
has room for — are given a home at the refuge.
“We don’t adopt animals out from here,” she says. “I
refuse to profit from animal flesh.”
New Age music piped throughout the 5-acre property
along 10-mile Creek provides a soothing background for
rescued animals, from newborn squirrels to llamas, from
a trio of Patagonian cavys to a tiny kinkachoo named Mr.
Bojangles, rescued from a roadside attraction in Key West.
“When we got him, his tail was rotten with gangrene,
and he had never been allowed to sleep in the daytime,
even though they are nocturnal animals. He was just a
slave to this guy who made him pose with tourists.”
Mr. Bojangles now plays with his toys at night and
sleeps during the day, unless he sniffs a Fig Newton offered
at the opening of his little homemade cave.
Fig Newtons are the cookies of choice at Creature Safe
Place. Even Belle, the 7-year-old whitetail deer that Winnie
pulled from her slain mother’s slashed belly and breathed
life into, loves an occasional cookie. But then, the gentle
doe loves. Period.
She shares a large enclosure with a couple of sandhill
cranes and a swan, which also may never make it back to
the wild. But Belle and the sandhills often serve as surrogate
mothers to orphans brought to the rehab center.
“We just hold a bottle under Belle’s belly, and she stands
still while the babies feed,” says Winnie, a 61-year-old
Florida native who says she inherited her love of the
state’s flora and fauna from her late father. “Belle is just
one of the Earth angels out here.”
Along the boarded pathways between cages and compounds
are trickling fountains that serve as birdbaths for
wild birds, or occasionally, water bowls for any of Winnie’s
dogs that are tall enough to reach up for a lick.
“We try to provide good karma,” Winnie says, as the
tranquil sound of the waterfall and music is interrupted,
comically, by the rowdy honking of a couple of territorial
geese and a nearby cockatiel that likes to imitate them.
Unlike the geese, Danny Boy also spreads his thinning
white feathers and dances, especially when he’s encouraged
by a cookie.
“We take a holistic approach to caring for these animals,
and it takes a lot of people to make it work,” says Winnie.
She is quick to point out that a community of about 40
volunteers she calls “The Wild Bunch” help her run Creature
Safe Place. The refuge is a nonprofit organization licensed by
state, local and federal agencies to care for and rehabilitate
wildlife, some of which are endangered or protected species.