Wildlife rehabilitation

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Wildlife rehabilitation is the process of removing from the wild and caring for injured, orphaned, or sick wild animals. The goal of wildlife rehabilitation is to provide the food, housing and medical care of these animals, returning them to the wild after treatment.

1 Process
2 Criticisms
3 Other Information
4 Public Service
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Process

Rehabilitation begins when an animal is found and reported to a wildlife rehabilitator. The rehabilitator will examine the animal to determine the extent of the injury and the probability of successful rehabilitation. If it appears that the animal can make a sufficient recovery to be able to return to the wild, the animal will be fed, nurtured, reconditioned, medicated, operated on, or otherwise treated as necessary.

Animals that cannot be rehabilitated are usually euthanized humanely, although animals are occasionally placed at facilities appropriately licensed for educational exhibit. A non-releasable animal may sometimes be kept by the rehabilitator (under separate permit) as a foster parent for orphaned or injured young wildlife. Wildlife rehabilition was started by Lyn Irwin, late mother of Steve Irwin and Wildlife is still being saved since Steve Irwin was killed.

[edit] Criticisms

Critics advocate a naturalistic viewpoint that animals requiring rehabilitation should be left to nature rather than rescued, so as to avoid interfering with the cycle of life. Supporters of the practice generally point to the large number of rehabilitation cases resulting from human intervention in the first place (e.g. animals hit by cars) and argue that rehabilitation is a way of restoring the balance.

[edit] Other Information

In many countries, including the United States and Australia, wildlife rehabilitation requires a permit, and in most areas it is against the law to attempt to rehabilitate a wild animal on one's own. In the United States, rehabilitation permits, requirements and procedures vary from state to state. However if one wishes to rehabilitate migratory birds, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act requires that a permit must be obtained from both state and federal wildlife agencies (this includes ALL birds with the only exceptions being pigeons, European starlings, and house sparrows).

The field of wildlife rehabilitation is generally composed of individuals who operate from their homes, usually as volunteers or as part of volunteer organizations. Nevertheless, with the increased availability of training and continuing education being added as a condition of permit renewal, many of these wildlife rehabilitators are able to provide very sophisticated care to injured and orphaned wildlife. Most home-based wildlife rehabilitators are required to have a relationship with a licensed veterinarian for consulations and assistance on problems that exceed what can appropriately be handled by a lay person.

Around the world, there is an increasing number of professionally staffed wildlife hosptials that are taking the field of wildlife rehabilitation to a level that puts it on par with companion animal medicine...and even human medicine in some cases. The Wildlife Center of Virginia, for example, has become an accredited teaching hospital that has provided training to students from almost every veterinary school in the United States and Canada, as well as 25 other countries. This center also offers graduate veterinarians a one-year postdoctoral internship in clinical wildlife medicine and a three-year postdoctoral residency in preventive medicine (epidemiology).

[edit] Public Service

"Wildlife rehabilitation is a network of individuals and organizations caring for injured, sick and orphaned wild animals with the goal of releasing these animals back into their natural habitat. Wildlife rehabilitators have demonstrated a proficient knowledge of wildlife by passing both written and oral examinations, have met certain housing standards for species they are permitted to treat, attend continuing education classes and work with a licensed veterinarian. Through rehabilitation, an animal is given the benefits of proper nutrition and husbandry as well as modern medical care including fluid and drug therapy, diagnostics, x-ray and surgery. For animals that cannot survive in the wild, or who are beyond the ability to recover, rehabilitation offers a painless end to their suffering. Individuals who unlawfully possess wildlife not only endanger the health and well-being of that animal, but also are risking their own health, as well as the health of their family and pets. In addition to the physical injury a wild animal can inflict, wildlife carry diseases and parasites that can infect humans and domestic animals. Furthermore, animals that have been humanized pose a great threat to the people they encounter as well as to themselves. By offering an alternative, wildlife rehabilitation is also a public service which provides the public with a humane, legal way of dealing with the wildlife in need that they encounter. The person who finds and rescues a wild animal is the first step in the process of returning an animal to its natural habitat, as well as in protecting the public health." ^[1]