I am really excited to share this update on this year so far. Before I start, it's worth explaining that the info below features some of my work through the Wildlife Care Badge, as well as UK Wildlife Transporters. This is because I founded (and co-developed, with lots of other people) and oversee the WCB, without which UKWT would really struggle to exist at all: we wouldn't know where we could safely transport wildlife to, as wildlife rescue is unregulated across most of the UK...
JANUARY 2024 - APRIL 2024...
WCB - New WCB Holder Applicants took the steps to becoming WCB Holders.
WCB - We ran 2 webinars: Jon Beresford, on ‘How To Fundraise’ and Jacqui Wilmshurst MSc PhD CPSychol AFBPsS, on 'How To Say 'No’'.
WCB - Our first WCB Giveaway… The WCB launched a ‘giveaway’ where one lucky Rescue won a copy of the BSAVA Wildlife Manual.
UKWT - UKWT was officially still 'on pause' as I continued to fundraise for our first wave of UKWT staff, without which UKWT can only operate on a very small scale.
UKWT - I held a ‘Getting Prepared To Help Wildlife’ online event.
APRIL 2024 - UK WILDLIFE TRANSPORTERS REOPENED...
My thoughts on reopening - without funding for staff yet - were as follows…. ‘Whilst we're still fundraising to hire our first lot of staff in order to have UKWT up & running at a level that will make a significant impact (ensuring emergency care for at least 10,000 wild lives, every year) I am committing all of the time that I can, on my own, to setting up WCB Holders and as many Vet Practices as possible with at least a minimal list of UKWT Drivers, to start supporting them to help wildlife.
This means that I have reopened UKWT… We have reopened ONLY in a very small way but it’s the only way that UKWT can operate, while I’m running this all on my own.’
FROM APRIL - SEPT 2024, FOR UK WILDLIFE TRANSPORTERS, I HAVE…
Refreshed our whole UKWT Driver Database: I have contacted all Drivers individually and confirmed all who are still driving for us, which was 3/4s of our database.
I have been recruiting more UKWT Drivers, nationwide (and begun to get new Drivers set up with carriers & disinfectant).
The biggest bit of work I have done for UKWT this year, and the most important, is adapt our support structure for Wildlife Rescues and Vet Practices, so that we are more hands on again. These new procedures have been trialled and are MUCH more successful and they’ll enable me to grow our Drivers Database much more quickly from now on too..
One of the areas UKWT has struggled with in the past - in setting up Volunteer Wildlife Driver Lists for Rescues and Vet Practices - was in ensuring that the relationship between the Rescue/Practice and the Drivers ran smoothly. We lost quite a lot of very reliable Drivers from our database because they found that they weren't getting the same support from the Rescues/Practices that they were used to from me.
This isn't anyone's fault: UKWT has only one purpose that I can dedicate my efforts to, whereas Rescues and Vet Practices have emergency care to consider and suffering animals in front of them, demanding their attention, and transport is just a tiny part of their whole structure. They simply don't have the time to put in the focus just on transport that I can (not without undermining their animal care).
So, I devised a new way of working... Instead of passing on a list of Drivers to a Rescue/Practice and just checking in occasionally to see how it was going, I have started setting up dedicated Whatsapp groups for each Rescue/Practices' Driver lists, which I will also be in, so that I can track transports, offer back up support (ensuring that all Drivers are safe on the road and that I still know when a Driver is out and about) and so that I am also immediately contactable should anyone have any questions. It also gives me a chance to keep thanking our Drivers for their incredible efforts, which I struggled to do when I stopped coordinating and Drivers were left to transport more independently.
Below are pictures of the Transport Support Procedures for Vet Practices and for Wildlife Rescues…
[ *All of our Drivers have this 'Driver's Guidance' to support them in their transports too: https://www.ukwildlifetransporters.org/guidance-for-drivers ]
There’s 25 wildlife casualties/orphans that we have helped this year (that I have overseen, as part of our new hands on structure). I am aware of a lot more transports that have been undertaken by kindhearted UKWT Drivers, who have been assigned to Rescues for the last year, but - as per the reasons above - I don’t have the details on exactly when & who transported which animals (and why). With our new ‘hands on’ structure, I can track transports, properly look after our Drivers again and run focused recruitment campaigns around each Wildlife Rescue & Vet Practice, to enable even more animals to receive emergency care.
I have found myself having to start from scratch with lot of Vet Practices, who have already filled in GDPR etc with us. (This is just because the whole landscape of wildlife care has shifted for everyone this year with certain changes in the industry and Vet Practices are working out what to do with those changes). So, I am just going to be adding Practices to our list of places to support one by one, over the next 6 months, in preparation for next Spring.
With regards to Vet Practices however, there’s another bit of news… I was asked by a very large animal welfare organisation if they could promote our transport support services to Vet Practices, on our behalf, to massively extend our reach ASAP. Hopefully this will go ahead so we shall see. I shall keep everyone updated.
I held a ‘Getting Prepared To Help Wildlife’ online event, with 50% of income being donated to Celandine Wood Animal Rescue. [I am holding another one this October.]
I had my own ‘wildlife rescue’ moment…. I live by the sea and from my house I could see a Gull unable to get away from a moored fishing boat and madly flapping about. It was struggling in the water and I went down to the shore and saw that it was trapped in some fishing line. The boat was moored out quite a bit away from the shore so I had to swim out to get a look at ways I might be able to help.
There are no Rescues around here really who could have come out to free the bird (and no one with another boat who was able to help) and on closer inspection the fishing line was running into the side of its mouth but wrapping itself around the body the more it panicked. My friend and I tried to both free and capture the bird to take to the local vets - who are very wildlife friendly and would have operated to remove a hook, if one was present inside the mouth - but there was no one else around who could help and the bird was getting more and more worked up the longer we left it. I managed to free it from the boat and most of the line but it broke away from me after that as I was too caught up on the water currents and just trying to not get swept out to sea, to hold on to it to bring it back to shore and to the vets.
Taking more advice afterwards (I was fuming with myself that I hadn’t managed to keep hold of the bird to bring it back to shore) from those much more experienced than me in rescue, I was slightly reassured when I was told that I couldn’t have done more with the options available to me. I have been keeping an eye out for the bird since. I have seen it at least once and it seems to be coping fine so far but I am keeping an eye out still, if it starts weakening. I have arranged with the local vets that they will take it and provide emergency care to remove the hook if I can find it again and contain it.
Whilst I am still frustrated with myself that I wasn’t able to bring the bird safely back to shore, it’s reminded me even more how much we are ALL deserving of a good life (this bird doesn’t deserve to suffer and die from a human’s negligence in leaving fishing gear out on the water). That’s why the Wildlife Care Badge and UKWT are so important to me: at least these structures will, hopefully, slowly ensure that animals like this Gull are much more likely to get the emergency medical care that they deserve, if/when it’s possible to catch them, no matter where they’re found, even if they have to be transported further than a local vets, to get a second chance at a wild life.
FROM APRIL - SEPT 2024, FOR THE WCB, I HAVE…
New WCB Holder Applicants took steps to become WCB Holders (and 5 new WCB Holder Applicants are now lined up for our October intake).
I was asked to make the Vet Wildlife Support Package more widely available, by a very large animal welfare organisation, so that could be exciting.
The WCB has been very busy this Spring/Summer and we have launched some new initiatives…
WCB Revision Support - This is a new idea to support those Wildlife Rehabbers who want to become a WCB Holder but who are nervous of the Knowledge Assessments. I ran a very informal revision session with a Rehabber where we just sat on zoom and I asked them questions about birds from the 'BSAVA Manual', Les Stocker's 'Practical Wildlife Care' and Secret World's 'An Introduction To Wildlife Rescue, Rehabilitation & Release', that I had open on the desk in front of me. It helped to flag up areas of strength and weakness and the Rehabber felt a lot more confident by the end. I then asked a Vet Nurse how she revised for her exams and she told me about the multiple choice revision options that were available - here's some examples - so I am looking at creating lots of multiple choice question revision blog posts (made up from info in the aforementioned books) so that Rehabbers can use them to revise and get used to going through multiple choice questions on the care of their species, which is what the WCB KA entails. [More on this soon and please get in touch with any thoughts/advice.]
Wildlife Carers Journal - The point of this online ‘Wildlife Care Journal’ is purely to create a universal, public & shared platform for UK Wildlife Rescuers / Rehabilitators to specifically publish case studies, that they have found unusual and/or interesting, to play a part in growing general knowledge and experience within the Wildlife Rescue community and to also take advantage of a space that recognises Wildlife Rehabbers for the emergency care professionals that you are. [More on this soon: a page will soon be up on the website with all of the relevant info, so that you can share your feedback on the idea.]
Wild Affinity Network - This is a new (and recently announced) idea to bring together research and practice towards improved wellbeing for all within wildlife care... It involves the launch of a new hub to unite Wildlife Rehabbers and Researchers, to enable improved wellbeing for all within wildlife care.
WCB Grants for WCB Holders - This is an idea that has been running through my mind for a long time and I have decided to give it a go (a trial run, for one year). It came about because... I have donated personally - or offered my own airbnb home as a raffle prize - to quite a few WCB Holders in the past, to support them in their efforts. I did it just because I wanted to support the hands on work that was being done. I've been thinking about a WCB grant scheme for a while, as a way to provide more regular support. It's not an amount that's going to make it worth becoming a WCB Holder just to access it - it's only £100 every month, for one WCB Holder to claim, each time - but I hope that it can support our Badge Holders in a small way with Vets bills, tests, stuff like flyers or posters for fundraising events etc: anything really.
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