COLUMBIA, S.C. — Racoons, possums, squirrels and deer are just some of the animals that wildlife rehabilitators help throughout South Carolina. Today in the state Senate, a subcommittee discussed a proposed bill that would enforce regulations on rehabbers.
“God didn't give me a lot of gifts, but I can scrape a dead possum off the road and bring it back to life,” Beth Sparks laughed. “But now you don't want me to cook you a gourmet meal that's gonna go bad wrong.”
Sparks has been rehabilitating wildlife for decades, starting out working with veterinarians after college.
“I've always been that way,” Sparks remembered about her love for animals growing up. “I was the kid that had to empty your pockets out when you come in from playing because I had the frog.”
Sparks says she worked as a surgical vet tech for years, before eventually starting her own non-profit for possums. She worked as an at-home rehabber, until she began construction on The Opossum's Pouch Sanctuary, Rescue and Rehabilitation in Newberry County three years ago.
Now that the South Carolina legislature is discussing a bill that would regulate captive wildlife. Sparks says she’s worried about rehabbers and animals throughout the state.
“I think my issue with the bill, it was really, really vague,” Sparks said about House Bill 4874.
Senator Thomas McElveen sits on the Fish, Game and Forestry Subcommittee, which met on Wednesday to discuss the House's version of the bill.
“We're talking about wild animals. And so, you know, there's got to be some sort of oversight, some sort of regulation,” McElveen shared. “The conversation is really just giving the Department of Natural Resources some sort of authority here to oversee, to regulate, to enforce because it's like any activity, you’ve got good actors and bad actors. I mean, I think a lot of folks want to do this wildlife rehabilitation out of the goodness of their hearts, but then some of the videos I've seen, some of the pictures I've seen where you got 250 squirrels in cages in a house with two fawns running around. In other cases you’ve got a coyote who’s injured in a bathtub.”
The proposed bill was first introduced in the House in January. It passed a third reading in the House in March, before moving to the Senate. On April 2, it was referred to the Senate subcommittee.
“South Carolina is only one of about three states that has zero laws regulating the possession, rehabilitation and research of native wildlife,” Chair of the House Agriculture, Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs Committee Bill Hixon said when the House’s version of the bill was discussed. “Of course, this led to a number of instances where wildlife is being abused and kept in deplorable conditions unfortunately.”
The bill allows the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) to regulate animal rehabilitators.
“As a matter of public health and public safety and public policy, that’s just not a real good situation to give no tools at all to the Department of Natural Resources where they can actually step in and regulate this practice,” McElveen said. “At the end of the day, we're not talking about domesticated animals that are typically kept as pets. We're talking about wild animals, you know, and there's a reason why those animals are typically in the wild.”
But for people like Sparks, who was an at-home rehabber for 30 years before starting her non-profit, she’s worried it might set standards that are difficult to reach.
“To force people to build enclosures and things like that for an in-home rehabber, that's going to be hard. I have a nonprofit and it would be difficult for me,” Sparks said about regulations regarding height of enclosures. “But there's just a lot I think that the laws have been copied over from other states and they're not really working great there.”
Veterinary practice by rehabbers is one area McElveen says regulations are particularly important.
“We had veterinarians today testify as to the dangerous component of people dealing with medications that they don't know how to administer or just even participating in surgical procedures on animals when they don't have the training,” McElveen explained about the subcommittee meeting.
Sparks says she understands the concern, however, she believes certain medications are necessary.
“They're always worried about us and medications. Well, you have to have something,” Sparks said. “If you get them and they’ve been hit by a car. There's very mild medications you can get but you know that…I'm afraid they’re going to govern us with what we can have on hand to help these animals.”
McElveen says, however, this bill is geared more toward the “bad actors” who might be “hoarding animals” without intentions of releasing them.
“I think folks that are really doing this the right way probably don’t have to worry about the restrictions, it’s more the bad actors,” McElveen explained.
Ultimately, Sparks says she’s looking for more communication and collaboration between rehabbers, legislators and SCDNR.
“I just think this bill needs rewording. I think it needs thought about a little bit more,” Sparks said. “And I think if the rules and regulations that will be put together by the DNR, let us be part of it. You know, let's sit down and talk. We may be able to say, ‘That's not going to work because here's why.’ And then they can look and go, ‘Oh, never thought about that. You're right.’ or they're going to tell us where we're wrong, you know?”
McElveen says they’re in a time crunch to get the bill passed out of the Senate so it can get into a conference committee with the House before the end of the legislative session.
The Senate subcommittee did pass the senate version of the bill on to the Senate floor on Thursday and McEveen tells us he thinks the senate will continue working on amendments to the bill.
News19 reached out to the Department of Health and Environmental Control, which said in an email, "DHEC is charged with implementing laws made by our state legislature as the laws relate to the agency. While we do not provide specific comment on pending legislation, if this bill were enacted into law, DHEC would carry out its obligation to implement the law as directed by the General Assembly."