This hospital in Bend gives wildlife a second chance

Veterinarian Laura Acevedo wraps a groggy red-tailed hawk’s talons with surgical tape in the operating room at the Think Wild hospital and conservation center in Bend.

“This is for our protection,” she explains. “If she decides that she wants to wake up in the middle of anesthesia for one reason or another.”

Wildlife technician Taylor Dimmick completes Acevedo’s thought: “It’s like your patient suddenly has a steak knife on the table.”

“Eight steak knives,” chuckles Acevedo.

Once the razor-sharp talons are safely wrapped, the team from this nonprofit wild animal hospital sets about extracting a bullet from the hawk’s wing.

It’s just another day at this busy facility that was created to help solve the kinds of problems that come up when people move into wildlife habitat, as we have been doing all over Oregon, and especially in Bend.