It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m done being outraged. 2024 has been hard on my physical, mental, and emotional health, and the U.S. election was a contributing factor, but not the only one. There were a whole lot of other humans doing things I wish they wouldn’t, or not doing things I wish they would, and, frankly, I’m tired. I think I have outrage fatigue.
Wildlife rehabilitators, like me, tend to struggle with compassion fatigue, especially those who care for critically injured animals who are likely to have poor outcomes, like turtles who have been run over by cars. During busy times, there is no time to grieve one life lost before the next one is in your hands. We suffer burn out at the worst possible times.
This year, though, I have seen and felt something new emerging: outrage. Maybe it’s due to the feedback loop of social media, or maybe it’s because the unstoppable repetition of harm is too much, but wildlife rehabilitators are getting louder. The things we are going on about aren’t new; native wildlife species have been the often-unintended victims of lead ammunition, rodenticide, fishing line, and glue traps, among other things, for years. In 2024, wildlife rehabilitators, including me, have been, collectively, yelling about them. Unfortunately, all that outrage hasn’t changed anything, at least not yet.
Combined with compassion fatigue, all that inconsequential outrage is enough to make anyone walk away from wildlife rehabilitation. I almost did this past summer after a series of rough cases including:
- Several surrendered painted turtles who were illegally taken from the wild as hatchlings and kept poorly, resulting in metabolic bone disease, a potentially debilitating weakening of bone and, for turtles, shell. One, who had additional complications, died despite weeks of veterinary care. I cried for days.
- A young flying squirrel who arrived stuck in a glue trap, so dehydrated from being left to suffer for days that I had to stabilize her before I could begin the hours-long process of releasing her from the glue. Thankful she survived the ordeal and was released, but I will never forget the look in her eyes when I was first trying to save her.
- An eastern chipmunk, normally a feisty species, who laid in my hand, shaking from an infection due to an invisible bite from the outdoor cat that caught her. The chipmunk’s wound abscessed even though I started her on antibiotics on intake. I stayed up most of a night with her and was sure, when I finally admitted I could do no more and tucked her into blanket nest, that she would pass. She held on, regained her strength, and was released, but my patience for people who let their cats outside died.
- A common snapping turtle who, luckily, escaped with minor injuries after being deliberately hit by a driver who swerved well onto the shoulder of the road to get him. That kind of unnecessary and undeserved violence against wild beings is all too common and frustrates me immensely.
The only people who knew I halted my intakes for the second half of 2024 were the other wildlife rehabilitators and wildlife emergency hotline volunteers in our regional network. I was so burnt out I could barely care for the patients I had. I’ve only recently started to ease myself back in by capturing a couple of injured owls, one from the inside of a pickup truck. (Don’t leave an owl uncontained in your vehicle no matter how stunned he seems. If you aren’t injured when he comes to, your car seats will be.) And I just added another kidnapped-from-the-wild painted turtle who looks like he will be okay.
There are still lots of issues I can be outraged about, but I am leaving the fatigue in 2024. One reason I can is that I am seeing others begin to effectively organize to address some of them, and I am happy they are taking the lead. Another is that I have recognized that I cannot accomplish anything if I am not well, and I won’t be if I try to right every wrong in the world at once. There are ways that I, too, can be effective, but being outraged at everything isn’t one of them.
I’m excited that one of the spring 2025 classes I’m taking towards my master’s degree addresses how to be effective, locally, in a way that aligns with my passions and uses my gifts. There is a practicum, which I will be doing at my own turtle rescue. The timing is perfect, and I look forward to sharing the results in the new year, without outrage fatigue.