- February 8, 2025
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When a Bald Eagle that ate from people’s hands showed up in Volusia County, Sherrie Wentworth knew she had to do something.
Wentworth, the director at the East Coast Wildlife Rehab in Port Orange, had the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service track down an ID band found on the eagle and took it in. According to Wentworth, the eagle had previously been picked up in Orlando after it was found to have avian poxs on its beak. Due to its young age, the bird had become so accustomed to humans during the treatment in another rehab center that it was decided it could not be re-released.
A volunteer feeds a tortoise watermelon.
“He flew from Orlando to here on the East Coast,” Wentworth said.
Now, after three months at the East Coast Wildlife Rehab, the eagle—which won't get its white feathers on its head until it turns five year old—will be sent to a permanent home on July 9 at Dollywood’s Eagle Mountain Sanctuary for non-releasable Bald Eagles.
This is just one story of many at Wentworth’s rehab center where she currently has 300 rescue animals, including several owls and a tortoise with an affection for watermelon. Many of the animals are drop-offs.
Sherie Wentworth. Image courtesy of the East Coast Wildlife Rehab.
“Animals are just like people, they go from home to home to home and it really upsets them,” Wentworth said.
Wentworth, a former Learjet pilot, started the non-profit in 2012 and rescues animals from Volusia as well as Flagler County. The “animal-oriented first” rehab center includes a medical facility, a 100-foot aviary and currently has four full-time volunteers.
Two veterinarians, one from Tomoka Pines Veterinary Hospital and another from the Animal Clinic of Edgewater, help with the medical treatments.
The rehab center took in this baby fox with a fractured leg after it was found in a sewer drain.
According to Wentworth, the rehab center does not get state or government funding and runs on donations.
“I decided I wanted to help the community and nature so I started this and then spent over $100,000 on this facility,” Wentworth said. “All the money goes straight to the animals.”
Wentworth’s plan is to start an education conservation center that will be open to the public. She is trying to get 200 acres in the nearby area with the goal of using half for conservation and around 50 acres for the animals.
Rescued owls.
One step toward achieving this is by getting on the TV show, 911 Wildlife Rescue. She noted they are currently in the contract phase for the show. Wentworth said the show is expected to air around the first of next year.
In the meantime, Wentworth and the volunteers have a menagerie to manage. There’s the python who’s still growing; the lemur who bounces around a cage of toys; the baby fox found in a sewer drain in Palm Coast—the list goes on.
And if there’s any doubt about how important this is to Wentworth she only needs to say five simple words: “I have to do this.”
The Port Orange Observer hits driveways July 13. Send story ideas to Nichole Osinski at [email protected].
