What it takes to be a Wildlife Rehabilitator - Part 1

     When I was in college, I volunteered for the Minnesota wildlife rehab center. Back then it was a shabby condemned-for-normal-use building on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. There were places where the exterior bricks had crumbled so badly a thin board was all that kept you from being able to stick your head outside.  You had to wait when you first turned on lights in the food prep room because the roaches were so thick, watching a blanket of them disappear into the walls and behind crevices before you went in. Despite its intense disrepair, the center still did a lot of good.  I was there for over five years, almost every Sunday from early morning til late afternoon, oftentimes the only one on that shift. It was a really difficult thing for me to do - I was paying for my own way in college, working two part time, minimum wage jobs and side gigs as I could get them. Even just pulling together funds for gas to get to the center, much less taking the time off to be there every weekend, often meant I went a day or two without eating. It took me more than a year to save up for my rabies shots ($800 back in the late 90s) so I could work in the main clinic and not just the bird and mammal nursery. I did it because I loved it, because it felt like a privilege to learn the work and spend time with the animals. In a lot of ways it saved me - it got me through some of the worst years of my life by giving me a purpose and something to look forward to.

    When I moved away from the cities, I still commuted back and forth (a more than three hour round trip) for almost a year to keep volunteering, because there was a total lack of ability to do so in my new area. No rehab center, no zoo, not even a private rehabilitator I could work for. At the time, I wasn't in a place to do it myself, so I fell away from the community, but I had always planned to go back. (As a sidenote here, after I left the MN rehab center completed its many year fundraising goal and was matched by support from the state to build a multi-million dollar, state of the art facility and now boasts a large staff and dedicated veterinarians - I'm super happy for them, and it's a far cry from the days I knew!)

    Wildlife rehabilitators are in high demand and low availability, and I'd like to explain a bit about why. Who wouldn't want to hang out with awesome wildlife if they had the time??
I think a lot of people get the wrong idea about what wildlife rehabilitation is. They imagine cuddling adorable fuzzy orphans, spending time up close with wild animals, hugging foxes and towel-wrapped owlets. The reality of it is much different. 

     In a lot of ways, wildlife rehabilitation is the 'worst' of what working with animals has to offer - the messy, brutal, heartbreaking side of the work without the typical rewards.  

 Unlike say working for a zoo, where animals are generally healthy and often enjoy human interaction, where you are paid for your position as a zookeeper (albeit animal care positions are rarely very well compensated!), you volunteer your time with animals that more-or less generally hate you. You deal almost exclusively with illness, neglect, loss, and cruelty. 

The purpose of wildlife rehabilitation is to get injured, sick, or orphaned wild animals back to the wild. Emphasis on *wild* - a tame wild animal is a dead animal, so strict measures are taken to keep animals from habituating to or bonding with humans.  Animals that come into rehab are usually at death's door, and are terrified of people. They can be covered in parasites, mange, open sores full of maggots. They want to bite, claw, and vomit on you. Basically, the animals hate you, and most of them are in dire straits. You want to try to get them healthy again, and back to their proper lives - but they aren't 'thankful' about it, and they shouldn't be. Being afraid of humans is what can keep them alive. 

    There are cute orphans you sometimes feed - often going to great lengths to hide yourself behind towels or puppets, so they don't imprint on you - but even those are generally miserable to take care of. Mixing up sticky formulas, making gruel out of crushed bugs or ground whole rats. Baby songbirds need to eat every *15 minutes* from 6am to 10pm for the first week, then every 20-30 minutes for the next few. A missed meal can mean delayed growth or death.  Painstakingly, you let baby rabbits drink one drop of milk at a time from an eyedropper then rub their genitals with a wet cotton ball to stimulate them to urinate and defecate (a job their mother would do). You hold back greedy baby squirrels from sucking formula into their lungs, and try to avoid being bitten by their nasty incisors when they get old enough to recognize you as a food source and then snap become aggressive as heck, charging the cage wire and flinging themselves at you if they get the chance. 

    Wildlife rehab is a parade of cleaning up (literal) shit, monotonous food preparation, sterilization of clothing and utensils to prevent the spread of disease, losing sleep to strict feeding schedules, and never getting a break because there are no days off or vacations when it comes to animal care. They are a 24/7 responsibility, and the animals don't even *like* you.

    Then there is the emotional side of it. The vast majority of animals that come into rehab are from human caused issues, ranging from accidents to purposeful cruelty. A lot are injured by people's roaming housecats, hit by cars, grabbed by dogs, or abducted by well meaning but misguided folks. Some cases break your heart - like small birds caught in glue traps nailed to trees and baited with peanut butter or suet by neighborhood kids, or animals used as target practice close range by paintballs.  Many animals that come in are too far gone or injured to ever be returned to the wild, so they have to be euthanized. Very few unreleasable animals are suitable for a life in captivity, say as an educational ambassador. They weren't raised with humans and would be constantly stressed, or the nature of their injury would cause chronic pain or behavioral issues. There are a lot of animals compared to the number of facilities capable of caring for them or looking for another program animal. You deal with a lot of loss, and emotional burnout is one of the #1 reasons people fall away from rehab over time.

    Successful wildlife rehabilitation takes a lot of specialized skills. You need to learn hands on things like fluid therapy, safe animal capture and transport, how and what to feed, injury assessment, dealing with and educating the public, and so much more. Every single species has different needs, safety concerns, zoonoses (diseases that can be transferred between wildlife and people), parasites, dietary concerns, behavioral considerations, caging requirements... and on and on. It takes time, guidance, resources, and motivation to learn these things. Volunteering for a center makes this much easier - there are usually staff, veterinarians, and mentors available, and you learn the job slowly, expanding your knowledge base and abilities. It's a job where you are always and forever learning, asking questions, and dealing with new situations. 

    There are also the monetary costs. Wildlife Rehabilitator is (contrary to most peoples' beliefs) NOT a paid position. The state or federal government doesn't fund it. It's not a job of the DNR (natural resources department) or USFWS (U.S. Fish & Wildlife).  It is a volunteer position.  Though some larger facilities, like the Wildlife Rehab center of MN do manage to get grants and state funding, they are still run largely by volunteers and being an independent rehabber is a volunteer position. What that means is that your time and labor (often intense, especially when doing things like raising songbirds which is a full time job) is unpaid, your bills for food and supplies are on your own dime, and vet care is out of pocket. As a wildlife rehabilitator you are legally required to have a veterinary consultant, and to get their input on many cases. Vets are not required to give you free or discounted services. I think everyone knows how expensive vet care can be if your dog or cat gets sick - imagine paying for a flotilla of small animals with broken legs, needing prescription medications, x-rays, exams, or euthanasia. Wildlife rehabbers are left to self-support, or find ways to fundraise and accept donations to cover the costs.

    I'm not trying to paint a pessimistic, terrible picture of wildlife rehabilitation. It's not all bad. It is still amazing to get to spend time with wild animals, especially when you get to see them recover. It feels amazing to be able to release an animal you nursed back to health, to watch it go back to where it should be, with a gleaming coat or fresh set of healthy feathers, ready to get back to its wild life. It's a satisfying job, and a privilege. You learn a lot - about animal health, behavior, veterinary care, diseases, feeding, natural history. You connect with an amazing group of people who cares deeply about the same things you do. You see and meet people who care.  It's just that the job itself is really hard - physically and emotionally - and has little of the usual personal 'rewards' that come with working closely with animals to offset all the costs and difficulties.

    So.. you know all this and you still want to get into wildlife rehabilitation? Awesome! You are one of the crazy few that decides to pursue your wildlife rehab license. Where do you get started?

    Before anything else, and before you are eligible for a personal permit, you need a few years of relevant experience. Experience as a zookeeper, veterinarian, animal care specialist, or through volunteering for an established wildlife rehab center or permitted individual. This gives you the absolutely necessary experience in taking care of the animals you want to help, under the guidance of knowledgeable mentors. 

    Wildlife Rehabilitation falls under state jurisdiction (except in the case of endangered species or migratory birds, in which the federal government also gets involved), so each state differs in its specific requirements for licensing. I will describe Minnesota's here, since that is what I'm familiar with.  In the U.S., it is illegal to attempt to rehabilitate an animal without a license. This is for the protection of both animals and people. Though people may be well meaning, they cause a lot of unintentional suffering of animals by trying to attempt care themselves. For example, I see a lot of videos where people are pouring water into the open beaks of birds. Birds have a glottis (opening to their windpipe/lungs) in the bottom center of their mouth and just pouring water in their mouth can easily get water in their lungs, causing fatal pneumonia or literally drowning them. Knowing a little (the animal is likely dehydrated or thirsty!) is dangerous (not knowing how to give proper rehydration therapy and injuring an animal further). 

     It is illegal for wildlife rehabbers to give the general public advice on how to raise wild animals, so information found on a casual online search is often misleading or misinformed. Baby wild animals, especially birds, grow incredibly fast and slight issues in diet, vitamin deficiencies, even in a *day* can easily cause permanent damage that will lead to an animal needing to be euthanized. Many times people will try to take care of a wild animal for a few days or a week, then bring it to a rehabilitator - and by that time the animal has a death sentence on it. They let their kids play with it as a pet, so it's stressed or habituated, they were feeding it ground up hamburger, hot dogs, peanut butter, white bread because the internet said so. It's now got rickets (a bone growth issue) and needs to be put down. And so on and so forth.  When advice given is to leave an animal alone or bring it to a licensed rehabilitator, there is a reason.  Don't even get me started on potential disease concerns of bringing a wild animal into your home...

      So! You now have your years of relevant experience and want your own, individual wildlife rehab permit. You contact your local DNR non-game wildlife officers to see if there is a need in your area. There is! Now you need to schedule and pass an examination, given at one of their government offices.  The exam covers thousands of pages of material - which you have purchased for around $150-300 from the national and state wildlife rehab organizations. Which you have also joined, for about $150 for a year's membership to the main three. You already know lots of this information from your background in biology or animal care, and your years of mentorship. Topics include licensing and regulations, zoonotic diseases, animal care, species identification and natural history, liability issues, answering phone calls from the public, veterinary concerns, triage, transport, safety, ethics, etc. The test is not meant to scare people away from rehabilitation, but to assess your knowledge and readiness for branching off on your own. It's a big step to move from being part of a larger organization as a volunteer, with a specific job and all that support to doing things by yourself (of course you still have support and guidance from the community, but you're now going to be completely responsible for intake, care, assessment, release, all of it - not just going in, doing a job, going home). 

Though it took a few months to get scheduled (the DNR coordinator was out of town for a month, and the other local folks were hopelessly busy with spring prairie burns and flood control), I passed my test (with 100% score! I don't like to brag but I'm going to give myself a tiny pat on the back for that).  Now you submit the actual application form which is about 30 pages long. Some additional things you have to consider to apply:

1. As soon as it gets out you're a rehabilitator, your information goes public and people will be calling you, day and night. Often they are irate, and don't understand you aren't a government employee providing a service, so they want you to deal with their issue RIGHT NOW. You need a dedicated phone line for this, so get one. 

2. You need a facilities address or P.O. Box to list, and for correspondence, if you don't want the public showing up on your doorstep at any time with a multitude of animals - including unwanted exotic pets. 

3. You need to find a master class mentor in-state that is willing to take you on. This is required for the permit. There are often very few people holding this class of license, and not all may accept novices. You are responsible to find someone and get their approval.

4. You need liability insurance that will cover your rehabilitation activities. You open yourself up to law suits if someone gets injured by a wild animal when you advised them about how to secure it or bring it in, if someone gets injured on your own property messing with animals, if you or a guest gets hurt by accident. Homeowner's insurance often won't cover this (they consider it a business activity even if you don't get paid) and few places will. You have to find, and pay for specialty insurance and understand how to deal with potential legal situations that may arise - and get special training about dealing with phone calls and the public, to protect them and yourself. 

5. You need current tetanus shots and rabies vaccinations. Rabies vaccines run usually around $1200 and are rarely covered by insurance since it's an 'elective' vaccine. 

6. You need to find appropriate release sites for successfully rehabilitated animals. You can't just let them go anywhere - you need permission from landowners or parks, and habitat must be suitable, appropriate to the species you are working with, and not already at capacity.

7. You need to figure out how to safely and legally deal with euthanized animals. There is contamination and disease risk, and you may need to pay a veterinarian to incinerate them.

8. You need to find a willing veterinary consultant. The state doesn't help you with this, you need to contact and cultivate relationships with local veterinarians and find one willing to let wildlife into their clinic. One that hopefully has experience with the animals you will be bringing in. You need to find out how they're willing to meet with you and when, what they will charge, what services they are willing to offer, and if they'll consider getting further training working with wildlife. You need to be able to afford using their services. 

9. You need to have a system for record keeping, and intake forms for the public. Probably a website and some business cards. You are responsible to file official forms each year with the state and there's no simple out-of-the-box option for this. You can use software online or make your own spreadsheets, but you need to figure out a system. 

10. You need to have the appropriate supplies and enclosures available to handle every species of animal you plan to take in and rehabilitate. Which leads us to the next part of our proccess...

    After you have passed the exam, submitted your application and had it approved, now you need to pass a facilities inspection.  A DNR representive and/or your Master class mentors comes to your place and uses an extensive 15 page form going over all sorts of things such as:

-Your animal intake procedures, enclosures, disease prevention plan, equipment, best practices. They take photos and ask a lot of questions.

-Caging and structures must be secure, safe and healthy for the animals, easily cleanable, appropriate to species. Keeping rehabilitated animals away from people is of utmost importance! They cannot be around household pets and noises - you don't want a rabbit or robin to think a housecat is safe company. Human activity causes wild animals a lot of stress, and they need their own dedicated, separated space.  Disease transfer is also a huge concern, which necessitates a separate fridge/freezer and ideally washer/drier or whole building. Are you going to use things like foot wash stations? Do you have proper sanitizers and know how to use them?  Some things will kill certain bacteria but not viruses, or vice versa. Do you know what risks are from what species and how to handle them? Does that sterilant need to sit for 15 minutes or 45? 

-Wildlife being rehabilitated can NOT be in public view. You can't offer tours, let neighborhood kids come see, show them off to your neighbors or party guests. They can't be used in education. How will you protect your animals from curious people?  People can act incredibly entitled if they see something interesting to check out, and want to treat you like a zoo. 

    After you pass your inspection, you can get your state license. As a beginner, or Novice class license holder, you can ONLY work with healthy, orphaned animals that are either passerines (songbirds), rodents (squirrels, mice, etc.) or lagomorphs (rabbits).  That's it. For at minimum two years.   After that, if you are recommended by your mentor and pass another examination, you can get your General class license and work with injured or ill animals of the same species, and some others, as noted on your permit.  After five years or more as a General class rehabber, you can take a test to become a Master class permitee - allowing you to work with an expanded list of species, or endangered animals under certain circumstance. Some animals such as deer (considered an extreme local disease risk) or particularly dangerous (like bears) require additional permitting even for a Master permit holder.  The system is built to help give people slow exposure to relevant experience, and build successes early on with easier cases, to help prevent burnout or people getting in over their heads too quickly. 

    Right now I am just at the stage where I'm nearing inspection, so I'm working on finishing a songbird flight cage in a secluded area of our backyard, and a sectioned off space of our basement with direct access to outdoors as an indoor nursery.  Though I have years of experience working with raptors, and hope to eventually do raptor rehabilitation (and hold a falconry permit to keep captive raptors), I won't be eligible to rehabilitate them for a minimum of seven years after getting my license.  There are no exceptions for this, and that is the reason that even some official centers, like the International Owl Center in state don't do rehab. They would have to go through the same process, and put in seven + years working with other species before being eligible to work with owls in a rehab capacity.  Not all states are so strict about this or have the same system. 

      You would think building a simple flight cage (a place where orphaned songbirds can build up muscles, learn to fly, learn to forage and survive outside) would be relatively easy. To make it secure from predators (including those that would dig in underneath), sturdy, and able to handle the 65+mph winds we've been getting with alarming frequency is not simple at all. 

My husband Roman has been graciously helping me with the cage building process, and so far we have spent about $800 on it. He dug a trench 2 ft down to bury hardware cloth wire to keep predators or rodents from digging in, and put down crushed gravel to level the site. A sturdy 4x4 wood foundation holds a steel frame base for an 8 x 10 ft shed, giving the structure a roof that can withstand the snow load of our winter. I'm working on modifying the shed sides with protective wire mesh (to keep out predators) and softer fibreglass mesh (to protect delicate bird feathers). All of this has been out of pocket, and I'm thankful that I already have a fantastic incubator (donated by a generous patron here) and brooder from my days of raising reptiles.  I hope to specialize in corvids (which are allowable under my novice permit) because that is where my bird experience lies, and there is a great need for it in state - but that will require building a massive outdoor flight cage, about 20ft x 50-100ft minimum, at a cost of around $5000-6000. 

I want to share with you the progress of setting up this aviary, and continuing on the path to get my rehab license. After I get my state permit I have to apply for my federal permit, since I will be working with migratory birds. After that, I will be set and able to start taking birds in myself. I'm already a transport volunteer for the MN raptor center, and since the word has gotten out I'm doing rehab in the area I've already been getting calls and gone out to check on animals and sometimes transfer them to permitted rehabbers/centers. I look forward to learning, helping, and becoming a community resource for wildlife, because there is no one else doing it in this area, and I live near the 3rd largest city in the state. People are often asked to drive an animal 2-3 hours or more up to the center in the Twin Cities, which means people often end up trying to care for the animals themselves or just leaving them without help. There is a need for a wildlife rehab network here in southern Minnesota, and I want to help in creating it. :) 

Again... as my patrons, thank you. Thank you so much for supporting me in this work. I need to figure out ways to fundraise, because I would like to shift to doing both wildlife rehabilitation and education part time (and ideally full time), but that is going to require a lot of donations to make happen. I've got some plans for fun merchandise, and right now proceeds from my art business are basically funding everything I'm doing. 

You are already helping a lot, but if you want to help further: 

-If you know of anyone who might be interested in my web shop and want to share, that always helps!   https://foxloft.com/ 

-I added a donate button to my new website (it's bare bones right now, but I'll be adding to it in the coming months):  https://vultureconservancy.org/help/   - Right now any money donated will go directly to cage building for rehab and my two education birds, for feeding them, necessary supplies, and to help fund doing educational outreach in the community.  As an example, $5 or $10 helps buy wood for cages, $25 feeds our vulture for a week, $300 sponsors a traveling wildlife show day for a local show, nature center, or community event. 

-If you're local, I can really use the following supplies:   

*Paper Towels (we go through so, so many paper towels trying to keep small birds clean) 

*Bath Towels (smooth fibers, without loops that claws could get caught in) 

*Miter saw that can handle 4x4s 

*Reptarium soft screen enclosures, like : http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/flexarium.php   or 

https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Screen-Terrarium-Large/dp/B014I4HGQO/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_199_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XTFNQA0TYV2FBDVE70FV     ( for baby songbirds before they can go outside) 

Thank you again for reading, supporting, and your interest in my work. I'm so happy to share it with you!