The red-tailed hawk after rehabilitation. Photo courtesy of The Raptor Center

Raptor rescuers
A long-time donor supports The Raptor Center and other U of M programs with charitable gift annuities.

The red-tailed hawk was in trouble. She had become entangled in electric fence netting that had been used to contain chickens. As she struggled to free herself, the raptor suffered injuries to her wings, leaving her unable to fly.

The hawk was taken to The Raptor Center (TRC) at the University of Minnesota. Staff treated her wounds and nursed her through recovery. Once she passed a flight evaluation, where the team made sure she had the strength and stamina to thrive, she was released back into the wild.

The hawk is one of more than 30,000 birds—hawks, owls, eagles, falcons, vultures, and others—that have received care at TRC in its nearly 50-year history. “The majority come in because of human causes,” says Victoria Hall, executive director and Patrick T. Redig Endowed Chair in Raptor and Ecosystem Health. “Whether they get hit by a car or get lead poisoning or consume poisoned rats.”

Hall says most of the birds’ care and treatment wouldn’t happen without the support of donors like Billie Jo Jones. Jones, who passed away in 2022, had been a friend of TRC for many years providing support through charitable gift annuities. Her final gift to TRC will go to its rehabilitation fund (other portions will go to the Veterinary Medical Center and a scholarship in the College of Education and Human Development).

Hall says such gifts make TRC’s work possible. “Our hospital is run almost 100 percent by philanthropic donations,” she says. “Birds don’t pay their bill when they leave.”

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