Laurens Wildlife Rescue
  • Home
  • I found a wild baby - what do I do?
  • How can I help?
  • Contact us
  • FAQ
  • This week in wildlife

Frustrating week leads to outlining basic rules of etiquette

11/11/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
It was a thoroughly exasperating week; between the weather and an inconsiderate public with zero follow-through, my patience was tested to the max. So you reap the benefits with a list of what should be common-sense rules of etiquette when dealing with wildlife rehabbers.

Before diving into the list, however, let’s get the true update out of the way: no new intakes, and a week of rain prevented release of the red tail in the flight pen, so the red tail in the house is still awaiting his flight time…no rain is currently predicted after Tuesday of this week, so…fingers crossed….
​
Now, to some basic, common-sense-if-your-mama-raised-you-right rules of etiquette when dealing with wildlife rehabbers:
  1. ONE CALL is sufficient. If you leave a message and the rehabber returns your call and sets up a time for you to bring the bird, leave it at that unless something changes—the bird dies or your schedule changes, etc. DO NOT blow up the rehabber’s phone with calls and texts every couple of hours with cryptic “Call me” messages.  
  2. If you set up a time to bring the bird that day, the next day or in a couple of days, HAVE THE COURTESY TO NOTIFY THE REHABBER if there’s a change in status. It’s not our place to ride your arse to get the bird; YOU called US. Believe it or not, we do have other things going on in our lives: other wildlife to care for, jobs to keep our lights on, family matters to deal with, etc.
  3. DO NOT bypass the rehabber’s voicemail message with an immediate hang-up and text. There is important information in the voicemail message. When you do an “end-run” around the voicemail message, you miss vital information and irritate the rehabber.
  4. Text ONLY when the rehabber hasn’t responded to the voicemail you left within thirty minutes to an hour. We don’t have time to text back and forth with you for half an hour when a five-minute phone call could have addressed the issue.
  5. In voicemail messages, leave your location as well as your phone number.  Feel free to send a CLEAR photo of the bird via text but mention in the voicemail message that you’re doing so; that way we know where that random bird pic came from.
  6. If you insist on texting first, send a CLEAR photo of the bird to begin with—saves time. Also, see #5 above—include location and phone number.
  7. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO GET THE BIRD TO THE REHABBER. We are NOT employees of DNR or FWS. This means we actually have paying jobs in addition to our VOLUNTEER work as rehabbers. Whether we work outside the home or freelance from home, we CANNOT drop what we’re doing and ignore deadlines and the wildlife currently in our care to drive up to 150 miles round-trip multiple times a day to pick up more wildlife. And if you live less than 50 miles from a rehabber and balk at driving  the wildlife to the rehabber, SHAME ON YOU.
  8. Just because we’re home-based—and most rehabbers are—doesn’t mean we don’t eat or sleep at some point during the day/night. If you call during normal meal times—which 90% of people seem to do—there’s a good chance we’re at least wolfing down a pack of crackers at that point and would prefer not to try to talk to you while chewing our food. WE WILL CALL YOU BACK. Give us time. Similarly, if you call after 8pm and we say wait till the morning to bring us the wildlife you found, PLEASE DO NOT INSIST ON BRINGING IT THAT NIGHT.  We do need time to bathe and sleep, and even continue working on our paying jobs in many cases. Hard as it may be to believe, we’re more effective as rehabbers when we have a few hours’ rest a night.
  9. LEARN THE GENERAL GEOGRAPHY OF YOUR STATE. If the rehabber you’re about to call is a day-trip away, be sure you’re willing to drive three or more hours one way to get the bird to them. If not, seek help closer to home. There IS a public list of licensed rehabbers available in every state. Most game and fish agencies have that list on their website; many rehabbers also post the list on their websites. Please DO NOT call a rehabber 150 miles away and then tell them it’s too far to drive and ask them to spend 15 minutes trying to locate a rehabber near you—the lists are out there and easily accessible.
  10. DON’T EVEN call/email a rehabber in another state and ask for advice on caring for wildlife illegally. The rehab community is fairly small and we tend to at least know each others’ names if we’re not personally acquainted. And we talk to each other. So we KNOW when you’re lying about there not being a rehabber near you. Chances are, we know the rehabber who lives less than 10 miles from you that has already told you to bring them the bird.  And we tend to get a bit pissy when we’re blatantly lied to.
  11. (Yeah, I know—even God only had ten commandments.) Please understand that as a rule, rehabbers are NOT “people” people. We don’t like people too much; we deal with them only because we have to in order to help the wildlife. So if, when you bring us a bird or other wildlife, we ignore you while examining and actually talking in dulcet tones to the wildlife, it’s not personal. We just prefer the wildlife to you.
2 Comments
khpipwatcher
11/11/2018 04:56:45 pm

Love number 11. Well said!

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
11/11/2018 05:33:42 pm

Thanks KH!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008

    Categories

    All
    Baby Birds
    Baby Deer
    Baby Opossums
    Baby Possums
    Baby Rabbits
    Bluegray Gnatcatchers
    Carolina Wren
    Common Loons
    Epd
    Fawns
    House Finch
    Mbta
    Migratory Bird Treaty Act
    Mockers
    Mockingbirds
    Orphaned Birds
    Orphaned Deer
    Orphaned Fawns
    Orphaned Opossums
    Orphaned Possums
    Orphaned Rabbits
    Orphaned Wildlife
    Squirrels
    Wildlife
    Wood Ducks

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.