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Kenny Brown holds a rescued pelican that was suffering from a fishing hook injury in 2010. Now people are helping Brown, who has lung and heart ailments. Coastal Star file photo

By Larry Keller

Kenny Brown, aka “the pelican man,” has spent the better part of two decades responding to calls in South County and beyond to help the whimsical yet graceful birds and other wildlife when they’re sick or injured.
Brown’s fee: Nothing.
“I appreciate him because he’s always willing to help, no matter what,” said Monica Slazinski of Delray Beach. Most recently it was to check on a wan wading bird called a limpkin.
“He was at my house within 30 minutes,” Slazinski said.
Now it’s Brown, 59, who needs medical assistance for serious lung and other maladies.
Treatment is far from free. So Slazinski established a GoFundMe page to help Brown, who has no health insurance and no income to pay bills. As of June 27 it had raised $7,863 from 172 donations.
Brown has been hospitalized three times lately, and was admitted to the intensive care unit once, he said in an interview shortened by his shortness of breath. He is now taking blood thinners for clots on his lungs, and medicine for an enlarged heart. He is dependent on portable oxygen.
“I can’t talk much longer,” he said in the interview from his home in west Delray Beach. “I keep coughing up stuff. I’m going to be out of breath … it’s very scary.”
Brown used to earn a little money with a for-profit no-kill animal trapping service, and doing carpentry jobs. His health has halted that, but he still has to make truck payments, pay rent and feed his two cats, two birds, a dog and himself.
It’s not just individuals like Slazinski who call Brown. So do towns without budgets to cover animal rescues and rehabs.
Ocean Ridge police have called Brown well over 100 times in the past 10 years, Chief Richard Jones said.
“We rely on him a lot … but Kenny is always there, and he never says no,” Jones said. “He’s been a huge asset to our department and our community. We’re obviously heartbroken that he’s ill and in a predicament where he needs help.”
While Brown doesn’t charge anybody to relocate animals not seriously hurt or to transport those that are to a place that will treat them, a nonprofit Ocean Ridge police support group has donated $500 to $1,000 annually to help him offset his expenses, Jones said.
“He’s had financial struggles over the years,” Jones said. “At one time he was driving an old vehicle that was breaking down all the time, and we’d call him and he’d say, ‘Hey, I can’t get there right now because the truck’s broken down, but I can get there tomorrow.’”
When he bought a newer truck a couple of years ago, Brown was pleased that it would enable him to respond to calls more quickly, Jones said.
In Manalapan, police also regularly rely on Brown.
“He has provided a service to us for over 20 years for free,” said Chief Carmen Mattox. “If there’s an injured animal in our community, we call ‘the pelican man.’ The pelican man’s response is ‘I’m on the way.’ He always comes.”
Beachfront towns like Ocean Ridge and Manalapan most often call Brown to assist seabirds in distress. But Slazinski has asked for his help with mammals too. “Kenny would, I think, save a rat if he had the ability to,” she said.
“Coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, possums — every animal there is in Florida, I’ve rescued,” Brown said. “You have to understand something. There is nobody to rescue injured wildlife.”
Local and state agencies “all call me because nobody will help them. You see an animal that’s injured or dying that’s been hit by a car or hanging in a tree, I’m going to go rescue them and bring them to a hospital.”
Now all he can do is hope that somehow he becomes well enough to resume helping shorebirds entangled in fishing line and four-legged critters smacked by motor vehicles.
“I sure hope so,” he said, “because I’ve already had many, many calls. I couldn’t do nothing and it breaks my heart.”
To many who have counted on Brown’s help, it seems only right to repay his kindness.
One GoFundMe donor wrote: “Kenny came to my home twice when wildlife were in danger, very late into the evening. He wasn’t well then with his breathing, but seemed tireless in efforts to save God’s creatures in trouble. Kenny is one of God’s creatures in trouble right now and needs our help.”
Slazinski added, “If we all want a better place, we have to chip in. He’s one of the few people who has truly dedicated his life to making this place more habitable for animals and people alike. The least we can do is help him out.”

Brown’s GoFundMe page is at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-help-kenny-brown?qid=49e499215acd78f83e33b59165c1de10