JOEL THOMAS
1957 – 2012
SPCA Wildlife Administrator & Veterinary Technician, March 1995 – January 2012

We don’t know how to say goodbye to one of our SPCA family members. We don’t know how to tell you about him, and what he did for us, and what he meant to us, and what he did for wildlife in our community and beyond.

If you knew Joel, even if you met him only once, you know exactly what we mean.

He was that kind of man…a teacher, a mentor, someone who always had the answers but who always gave us those answers in terms we could understand. When we were at our most…how can we say this…stupid pertaining to wildlife, he’d provide information and somehow, simultaneously, always made us feel better about ourselves for asking.

Joel passed away early this morning (April 23, 2012) after a long battle with ALS.

His loss is overwhelming to all affiliated with the SPCA.

Joel’s relationship with the SPCA started in March of 1995, when he was brought on as a veterinary technician. In 1999, he became the Administrator and Education Specialist of the SPCA Wildlife Department, and things were never the same pertaining to wildlife in this community.

In 12 years, Joel heightened the level of wildlife education in Erie County to a degree nobody would have thought possible. His ardent, steadfast love of wildlife and the environment was evident the moment he began teaching a class, or instructing  wildlife rehabilitators, or even at the outset of a phone call from a community member concerned over some wild creature in the yard.

Joel didn’t live in a fantasy world concerning wild animals. He despised what he called the ”Disney-fication” of wildlife, attributing human qualities and personality traits to wild animals. Instead, Joel realized that the only way the quality of health and life of Erie County wildlife could be improved is if every single one of us accepted wild animals and their behaviors for what they are: WILD.

During spring and summer months, day after day, week after week, Joel would respond to the same calls, the same questions, yet his patience never wavered. He handled every single question as though it was the first time anyone had ever made such an inquiry.

When he wasn’t climbing underneath the Grand Island Bridge to place a fallen falcon chick back into its nest, or wrangling an alligator into a crate to be shipped to South America, Joel could be heard patiently explaining why our feeding white-tailed deer could ultimately cause their starvation. He tirelessly told us why rabbits and other creatures were destroying our backyards. He carefully detailed just why a rehabbed coyote needed to be released back to its “home turf,” despite the fact that it was a residential area.

Joel’s answers weren’t always what people wanted to hear, but they were always honest, truthful, grounded in reality, and highly educational, and this level of education, along with his unique way of sharing it, has created in this community a strong sense of confidence in its knowledge of wild animal behavior.  Our Erie County community members care as much about wild animals as they do their domestics, and thanks to Joel, tens of thousands of us now understand those wild animals a little bit better.

We didn’t know how to thank Joel, and now we don’t know how to say goodbye. Those who knew Joel are aware of his strong faith in God, so we know that somewhere, he is soaring amongst the eagles and falcons and hawks and owls and robins and geese and blue jays and cardinals and ducks and even sparrows he loved so much.

We miss you already, Joel.

GO TO WGRZ.COM TO SEE CH. 2′s EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE TO
JOEL BY THE STATION’S OWN TERRY BELKE.