Why Does UKWT Fund A 'Wildlife Care Advisor'?

Since UKWT began in August 2020, we have been accepting transport requests from Vet Practices, to move wildlife on from their Practice and on to nearby Wildlife Rescues, for ongoing care.

During the organisation of the transports, often it would become apparent that the veterinary staff in the practices didn’t have the confidence to fully assess and treat the wildlife in their care, before moving them on.  (Veterinary Professionals are highly trained, dedicated & fantastic people, but, overall, they can sometimes receive very little wildlife specific training, at university, to prepare them for the vast amount of wild species/cases that can be presented to them, in practice).

UKWT was lucky enough to connect with & start working with Emily - as Head Of Animal Care at a big RSPCA Hospital & a RVN - 5 years ago now and she has committed up to 1000 voluntary hours since we started collaborating, to help us to support Vet Practices on assessing/caring for wildlife, before one of our Drivers would arrive to pick up the animals and move them on.

During 2025, demand for UKWT exploded and - as a result - we also started getting a highly increased number of requests by Vet Practices to chat over cases of wildlife that had been dropped into them.  It reached a point where it was time to formalise the arrangement, because of the amount of time that Emily was being asked to give up.

We hired Emily formally as our ‘Wildlife Care Advisor’ in July 2025 and she has saved so many wild lives this summer, as a result.

Some case examples are…

• A Gull in Anglesey who had an injured leg (Emily helped chat over the assessment of the leg over the phone, which led to the Gull being transported to the nearest Wildlife Rescue, for rehab & release).

• A badly injured Rabbit & a Pigeon were taken in by a Vet Practice, late in the evening, in Glasgow, who weren’t sure how to care for them.  Emily spent 30mins on the phone going over the cases with them.

• 4 Gull Chicks in Bath - taken from a hoarding situation - were discussed about at length, & where then be transported to the nearest Wildlife Rescue for rehab & release.

• Support was provided for 6 baby rats found dumped & taken in by a fantastic Vet Practice, near North London, before they were moved on, for ongoing care.

These are just a few of scores of cases, from this summer alone.  There’ll be a HUGE number in 2026, as we’re getting busier and busier.

[Helping UKWT in this way is just one half of Emily’s role: she also helps to support WCB Holders with any cases they might be unsure of, too]. Emily is hired for an official 15hrs a month (although already she has committed a lot of extra voluntary hours on top too).

Please help us to keep funding all that UKWT does, HERE.