Ms. Mona Rutger

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  www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/51835 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/15/2009    Last Visited: 10/15/2009  

  Mona Rutger, director and founder of Back to the Wild, presented a program at the library Sunday.
  
  The center was founded almost 20 years ago and is located on property that also is home to the family's house. Rutger said she and her husband are on call every minute, every hour and every day of the year, and they get telephone calls at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. She said the effort is a labor of love but she wouldn't do anything else.
  
  "We're trying to teach kids that they have to take better care of the earth than past generations have," she said.
  
  Ninety percent of what comes in to Back to the Wild are human-related injuries.
  
  Rutger said officials' goal is to get all animals back into the wild, where they belong, and the center is allowed to use a limited number of animals for educational purposes.
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  The center either has to keep her as a crippled bird or make a decision about whether it is more humane to euthanize her, Rutger said.
  
  "We try very hard to do what's right for the animal," she said. "Wild animals do not handle captivity very well."
  
  Rutger said the center needs 15 employees but has three. The center only is funded by donations. The center can't charge for programs but can ask for donations, and it couldn't exist without volunteers, she said.
  
  Volunteers, Rutger said, are not petting or playing with the animals.
  
  "We are rescuing them, rehabilitating them," she said.

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  www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080909 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/9/2008    Last Visited: 9/9/2008  

  Mona Rutger, head of the center, will have live eagles, hawks, owls and other native wildlife on display, and some of the car classes in the show will be set up for cars with animal names.

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  www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/50047 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/8/2007    Last Visited: 10/9/2007  

  Mona Rutger, licensed rehabilitator, shows a bald eagle at the Seneca County Park District Oktoberfest Sunday at Garlo Heritage Nature Preserve.

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  www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/51236 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/7/2009    Last Visited: 2/7/2009  

  Mona Rutger, director and founder of Back to the Wild, a non-profit facility, said the goal of her program is to educate children about the natural world so they take care of it.
  
  "It's to help kids understand the natural world and that we are part of it," she said.
  
  Rutger said about 65,000 children per year learn about the program, either by taking a field trip to the center or by her speaking to them. She said 2,500 animals the public encounters come to the center each year, and the center fields 50-75 calls per day during its busy season.
  
  "It's almost all human related," she said about animals' injuries.
  
  She and Heather Yount, a caretaker, brought about 20 animals, including birds, turtles and snakes, to Longfellow, and all are disabled. She told children the animals used to live in the wild.
  
  "They were free and part of the wildlife of Ohio, but accidents happen," Rutger said.
  
  Rutger said she thought wild animals had no place to go when they got hurt, so she started the Back to the Wild facility. People call when they see an injured hawk or other wild animals and ask whether they can bring them to the facility, she said.
  
  "We started a hospital for wildlife, and that's how we got all of these animals," she said.
  
  Rutger said up until last year, bald eagles were endangered in Ohio and in the U.S., and there were so few left, people were afraid they would become extinct. The state has about 200 eagle nests, she said.
  
  "The eagles are coming back to Ohio," she said.
  
  The 16-year-old bald eagle she brought contracted West Nile Virus from a mosquito and is blind.
  
  "She doesn't see a single one of you, but she knows you're here," she said. "She can hear you."
  
  People spray their backyards to get rid of bugs, and that night, bats come out. Bats eat mosquitoes and die after they've been poisoned, Rutger said.
  
  "We have to be very careful how we treat the earth," she said.
  
  Rutger said owls can move their heads three-fourths of a complete turn, while cartoons make it look like their heads spin around. Also, owls have one ear high on their heads and one ear lower, she said.
  
  "Her ears are cockeyed," she said.
  
  First-grader Autumn Weidner said she learned how owls have ears in different places on their heads. She said she liked how a non-poisonous snake can shake its tail to look like a rattlesnake.
  
  "That's cool," she said.
  
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  www.sanduskyregister.com/news/localnews/fullstory.html? - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/27/2002    Last Visited: 8/27/2002  

  Mona Rutger, director of Back To The Wild, wildlife rehabilitation and nature education center, Margaretta Township, said the problem of sick and dead birds of prey hasn't improved.
  
  Rutger said she's still receiving reports of dying raptors.She had several calls on Monday.
  
  "It's just kind of horrific to see your clinic freezers fill up with beautiful birds of prey," Rutger said.
  
  ODNR has said 100-150 sick and dying raptors, mostly owls and hawks were reported statewide last week.Some of the birds have tested positive for West Nile virus, but it is still uncertain whether the disease caused their deaths.
  
  Rutger said she's seen 28 in the last week and a half.Back To The Wild usually receives two or three birds of prey in a month.
  
  So far, four of them appear to be getting better after having been force fed, watered through a tube, medicated, then left alone.Rutger noted that captivity adds to diseased animals' stress, which could contribute to their death.
  
  "Some are beginning to take mice on their own," she said.However, most die within a day or two.
  
  ODNR has asked people finding sick or dead birds of prey not to handle them because they have sharp talons and beaks that can cause injury.
  
  Though a human can only get West Nile virus through a mosquito bite, the birds still pose a potential health hazard, as the cause of their deaths is not determined.The agency still wants people finding the animals to report them, either to a local wildlife rehabilitation center, such as Back To The Wild, or on the agency's Web site, Ohiodnr.com.
  
  Whether or not the deaths were caused by West Nile, Rutger said the deaths are significant.
  
  "These raptors are top of the food chain and they are environmental indicators," she said.

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  backtothewild.com/bttwpages/spring2008openhouse.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/11/2008    Last Visited: 7/15/2008  

  For information, contact Mona Rutger at 419-684-9539 or e-mail mona@backtothewild.com.
  
  NOTICE: This is a page for the BACK TO THE WILD, wildlife rehabilitation center in Castalia, Ohio.This material is used with permission.Most of this material is copyrighted by the BACK TO THE WILD, wildlife rehabilitation center.
  
  Comments or questions regarding the BACK TO THE WILD, rehabilitation center should be directed to Mona Rutger at: mona@backtothewild.com
  
  Comments or questions regarding this website should be directed to

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  www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/51739 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/8/2009    Last Visited: 9/8/2009  

  * Mona Rutger from Back to the Wild, a wildlife rehabilitation and education center in Castalia, is to present information about the natural world for children and adults at 2 p.m. Oct. 11 in the adult reading room.
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  Mona Rutger, director and founder of Back to the Wild rehabilitation center in Castalia, is to bring her animals to the library a week later.
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  The visit is tying in the rescue theme, and Rutger is going to show people around the facility, Roszman said.

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  www.mcsoh.org/mcs/news.htm - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 12/29/2008  

  The day began with a presentation by Mona Rutger, founder of Back to the Wild, a non-profit organization that rehabilitates wild animals that have been injured in the wild. Ms. Rutger was named Animal Planet's Hero of the Year in 2006.

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  www.calhawkingclub.org/chccommerce/wnv_default.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/9/2006    Last Visited: 3/24/2007  

  Seven are still alive," said Mona Rutger, director of Back to the Wild in Castalia.

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  www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18663103&BR - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/4/2007    Last Visited: 8/4/2007  

  Back to the Wild founder Mona Rutger was joined by Sherry Wertz and her daughter, Jennifer Wertz, at Resthaven Wildlife Area in Margaretta Township to release the female eagle, which spent more than four months recuperating at the shelter which treats injured wild animals.
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  "They were just lovers of nature," Rutger said.
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  The female birds had fought each other so badly, neither could fly, Rutger said.
  
  "It was a territorial battle between two females," Rutger said."They really punctured muscles and did a lot of damage."
  
  One eagle had a hurt shoulder and was released about two months ago in Port Clinton.
  
  The other needed more time to recover and recondition its muscles to fly again, Rutger said.The eagle had a white head and tail, meaning it was at least six years old, but its exact age is unknown.
  
  Rutger credited the Fitzthums for their work and Dr. Marianne Socha of Huron, who donated veterinary care for the birds.
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  "She was just a staunch supporter and her husband was a true activist in environmental issues," Rutger said of Sherry Wertz.
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  Rutger met Jennifer Wertz and her husband through the elder Mrs. Wertz, and the other couple also became friends of Rutger and her husband, Bill.
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  Rutger met Jennifer Wertz and her husband through the elder Mrs. Wertz, and the other couple also became friends of Rutger and her husband, Bill.
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  Rutger released the eagle at Pond 8 at Resthaven, a state wildlife area, at the request of state wildlife officials.
  
  Rutger, wearing leather, arm-length gloves, carried the bird to the end of the concrete dock as Sherry and Jennifer Wertz walked just behind.
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  Rutger warned the group that a release can have mishaps and is not always ceremonious, but the crowd was quiet, even reverent, in the sanctuary of nature.
  
  Like a mother might nudge a fledgling out of a nest, Rutger waited for a breeze, counted to three and hoisted the bird up.
  
  The rehabilitation worked.The eagle caught the wind, flapped its wings and flew to a perch among the tallest branches of a tree on the far side of the pond.
  
  Rutger turned and hugged Sherry and Jennifer Wertz.
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  "I'm covered with goose bumps from head to toe," Rutger said.

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