EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: The Raptor Rescuer

ROCKY POINT, NC (WWAY) — Bald eagles, owls, and osprey are all part of the birds of prey family and they play a huge role in our ecosystem. Sometimes they need help. They can’t go to the hospital. Can’t exactly go to the vet. But they can go to our Extraordinary Person of the Week who runs the Cape Fear Raptor Center.

“I’m a licensed falconer, which I have a permit to hunt with birds of prey and so with that it gave me a lot of knowledge of raptors,” Dr. Joni Seymour told Daniel Seamans. “The coast didn’t have the access to raptor medicine, Carolina Raptor Center was the closest, and they had a hard time getting birds from this area because it’s a 5 hour drive to get up there. So when I started seeing hawks needing help, I decided to open up this non-profit.”

The non-profit she is talking about is the Cape Fear Raptor Center in Rocky Point where birds of prey get a second chance.

“These two guys eat great,” Dr. Seymour said as she pointed to a cage with injured osprey. “We’ve taught them how to eat, so they literally show the other guys how to eat.”

Dr. Joni Seymour is a veterinarian. She is spreading her own wings to help the feathered, fly.

“Very commonly,” Dr. Seymour said, “we see hit by cars, that’s one of the top ones. In the eagles and ospreys and vultures we see a lot of led poisoning.”

And the wounds she sees are intense, like this bald eagle who picked the wrong perch. He was electrocuted.(see video of Seymour changing bandages)

“This is literally table sugar,” Dr. Seymour said as she poured it on the wound. “It’s for the wound. To promote regrowth of tissue and it’s anti-bacterial.”

It’s a tough job. One you do simply out of your love for animals.

“We are 100% volunteer run, including myself,” Dr. Seymour said, “my volunteers do everything from cleaning the cages every morning to pulling out medications to feeding birds, we have over 45 birds.”

They help those who can’t help themselves.

“Our mission is to take injured birds of prey, hawks, eagles, owls, vultures, osprey and kites, and rehabilitate them,” Dr. Seymour said.”The ones that can, we release them, get them back to where they came from. The ones that we can’t, we use for education to educate the public on the importance of them.”

They also have projects that help conserve and promote conserving the environment.

Dr. Seymour is also wanting to grow to reach more people in the community.
“rocky Point Animal Hospital(Seymour’s practice) donates 100’s of thousands of dollars a year to the organization(Raptor Center) and really need some corporate sponsors. The more we grow the more we’ll be able to move out of this location and get a free standing education center like the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle hospital where the public can come in everyday.”

Jodi Seymour, your heart soars as high as our feathered friends do and your mission to keep them in the skies above, is EXTRAORDINARY!

If you would like to volunteer or inquire about becoming a sponsor or simply to donate money for the cause, click here.

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