Apsyn Acres authorized to take in fawns

Aspyn Acres, located north of Waseca, has a “split” personality.

 

The 15-acre facility owned and operated by lifelong area resident Chasity Haslip, has pens, buildings and open areas where rescued domestic animals including goats, sheep, and all manner of fowl can live out their days in safety and comfort. Animals have any number of handicaps, including missing limbs, blindness, or simply having been neglected.

 

The public is invited to visit the farm at any time, either just to interact with the animals as they walk around the facility and its trails or to volunteer with the many tasks which are part of the daily routine.

 

Frequent special events are scheduled on the grounds to encourage those visits and enrich the interactions with the animals.

 

The other “personality” at Aspyn Acres are many activities to rescue and rehabilitate wild animals. This aspect, Haslip explains, must include as little human interaction with its participants as possible, since the goal is to give the animals the help they need and then return them to the wild ready to take care of themselves.

 

“They can’t leave here thinking it’s okay to approach people,” she points out.

 

Haslip has spent decades acquiring training and expertise in caring for animals of all types. She has taken courses and earned qualifications both for herself and her facility that make it legal for her and Aspyn Acres to take in and care for animals most people are forbidden by law to approach or touch.

 

She has made her facility part of a statewide network which works together to rescue animals of all types: network members are acquainted with each other’s resources and channel animals to the one best suited to provide needed care.

 

As an example, Haslip explains her facility tends to take in “prey” animals such as ducks, rabbits, songbirds, woodchucks, bats, possums and chipmunks–though from moment to moment she can never guess what kind of animal will be mentioned in the next phone call.  Any birds of prey which come to her are likely to be transferred to the University of Minnesota raptor center, she offers.

 

A recent expansion in Aspyn Acres’ qualifications is that the facility now has legal authorization to care for fawns which have been found sick, injured, or separated from their mother.

 

Haslip is quick to point out that a fawn found lying still in a curled position is almost certainly not in need of rescue.

 

“It’s their natural defense,” she says. “The fawn stays where the mother leaves it until she comes back. It stays almost perfectly still so that it doesn’t alert predators to its position.”

 

Though well intentioned, Haslip points out, people who pick up fawns thinking they are lost or abandoned are probably essentially “kidnapping” them.

 

She advises that anyone who believes they have come across a young deer in need of help should begin by keeping an eye on it from a distance and calling someone like her for input. If an animal does need to be collected, it should be done through proper channels.

 

When a fawn is in distress, Haslip has the facilities and knows what to do to rehabilitate it, raise it until it can live independently, and then release it. One obvious message the deer is ready to be set free, she says, is when it jumps the fence around her enclosure and simply leaves.

 

She says she has found fawns thrive on goat milk, so she keeps a frozen supply on hand. She has a cupboard full of medications which can help with various conditions.

 

“A lot of people ask whether I get attached to the animals,” Haslip says of her work. “Well, yes I do. But I also need to channel that attachment into doing what’s best for the animal–which means limiting how much I interact.”

 

Aspyn Acres is the southernmost animal rehabilitation facility in Minnesota, so it tends to be the point of first contact for distressed animals all across the southern third of the state. Haslip encourages people who find an animal in distress to contact her for information and input. Aspyn Acres’ phone number is 507-461-2108.