Local / State

Animal-veterans interactions at Naples sanctuary help heal traumas for both

WGCU | By Gwendolyn Salata

Published June 17, 2023 at 7:00 AM EDT

Payton DeMay, 27 and served in the Navy, loves on Victor, one of the adoptable dogs at Shy Wolf. Shy Wolf Sanctuary Education & Experience Center, in Naples, joined forces with Home Base Florida to provide them with the opportunity to participate in Shy Wolf Sanctuary’s Healing Hearts Program.

Shy Wolf Sanctuary is providing members of Home Base Florida, a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting veterans and military families, the opportunity to take part in the sanctuary’s Healing Hearts Program.

The Shy Wolf Sanctuary Education & Experience Center in Naples is partnering with a nonprofit supporting veterans and that shares a similar mission — helping to heal the unseen wounds of such traumas.

The nonprofit — Home Base Florida, which offers free resources to veterans, service members and their families — connected 14 veterans with Shy Wolf recently. They worked on service projects at the Collier County sanctuary and met animals who, like them, carry invisible wounds.

“They show people how to learn to trust again and recover from the abandonment, neglect or abuse and to share that love and that bond when they come up to the person or connect with the person,” Deanna Deppen, the executive director of Shy Wolf, said.

Through the Healing Hearts program, launched in 2015, Shy Wolf offers animal-assisted therapy to nonprofits that help people cope with physical ailments, mental illnesses and emotional disorders.

The sanctuary is a haven for 40 wolfdogs and several other unreleasable wild and exotic animals, including racoons, gopher tortoises and a cougar. Most animal residents have sustained injuries, experienced abandonment or suffered years of abuse.

The veterans built ramps for the older wolves that were having trouble getting into their above-ground shelters. For one of the more senior wolves, its shelter was lowered to the ground.

“This is a critical operation, having the wildlife have a home and sanctuary, because they have also dealt with similar things in their lives,” said Payton DeMay, a former Navy corpsman and current Florida Gulf Coast University student. “They just can't talk about it.”

DeMay, 27, said he experiences social anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Working in the hospitals and as a corpsman, I saw quite a bit of death and quite a bit of pain, and it didn't really sit well with me on an emotional and humanitarian level,” he said.

“Having humans start to understand that we also have mental health issues and we have physical and well-being issues that we need to take care of doubles down on this entire mission here and really helps us bring everything together, talk about it and bring awareness that it's OK,” he added.

DeMay had always wanted to visit Shy Wolf, which can be done by appointment only.

“It's really wonderful having such a strong network and community down here with Home Base and having them focus on mental health, as well as physical health and well-being, and then having them reach out and connect with people like Shy Wolf Sanctuary to also focus on those tenets,” he said.

In addition to modifying the animal enclosures and doing yardwork, the veterans toured the 2½-acre refuge, howled with the wolves and sat with Victor the wolfdog.

Victor, who is 21% gray wolf, was brought to Shy Wolf after his owner died. He is one of the adoptable animals at the sanctuary.

Home Base provides resources for mental, physical and emotional health.

“At Home Base, we believe in kind of a holistic approach of sound body and sound mind,” senior program director Armando Hernandez said. “It’s kind of the best way to heal.”

The organization was co-founded by the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital and opened its FGCU location in 2014. Home Base has served 141 veterans and family members this year.

The Shy Wolf trip was part of Home Base’s Adventure Series, a social-based program where veterans get together at least once a month and work on service-based projects and “do fun stuff,” Hernandez said.

“The invisible wounds don't just stop at the warrior,” Hernandez said. “They often penetrate spouses, the children, the parents. And so for Home Base, it's been important that we have to make sure everybody's healing in order for that veteran to really heal.”

Larry Whitmore, the outreach coordinator for Home Base, helped arrange the event, one that the organization has been doing for the past seven years.

Whitmore said nature and animals are a form of therapy for those who are dealing with extreme trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and depression.

“And what we also find is that the veterans doing something in the community with other veterans is also a source of healing itself,” he said. “And the core of what we're doing is really just getting the veterans together to commune with other veterans because there is therapy and healing just in that basic process alone.”

Robert Milisits, who was a sergeant in the Air Force, said the comradery he gets out of events like the Healing Hearts program helped him combat loneliness after moving to Naples a few years ago.

“I didn’t really know anybody,” he said. “Naples is a wonderful place. But if you’re alone, alone is alone.”

Milisits was so impressed with Shy Wolf’s mission that he signed up to come back as a volunteer.

“Whoever we can connect with to make people happy and to heal, that joy is what helps people to heal on all different levels,” Deppen said. “And it's the same for the animals too.”