VET PROFESSIONALS / WILDLIFE REHABBERS WEBINAR

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A panel of individual wildlife experienced Vet Professionals (Vet Surgeons and Vet Nurses) talked about what it’s like (as Vet Professionals who work both in General Practice and either with Wildlife Rescues or as actual founders of their own Wildlife Rescues) to treat wildlife in practice.

 

Our Panellists were...

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• Graham Blow: Vet Surgeon in Practice and Chair of Hedgehog Helpline with over 30 years of Hedgehog experience.

• Heidi Hargreaves: Vet Surgeon in Practice and at Vale Wildlife Hospital.

• Beth Ragan: RVN in Practice and one of the founding Rehabbers of Feline & Wildlife Rescue (treating birds as part of a Rescue and in Practice).

• Fiona Cook: RVN in Practice and one of the Founders of Feline & Wildlife Rescue (specialising in Hedgehogs).

• Emily Tindall: RVN in Practice and one of the Rehabbers of Feline & Wildlife Rescue (treating wildlife as part of a Rescue and in Practice).

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They shared their own personal experiences and the ups and downs and then the audience (of other Vet Professionals, Wildlife Rescues & Rehabbers) was invited to ask questions and then everyone was invited to have a positive and proactive ‘brainstorming chat’ on how Vets & Rescues could best help each other to support our UK wildlife.  This webinar space focused on the positive and communal ways (and the brainstorming section was controlled to be as upbeat, kind and productive as possible) that we can all help and support one another, in order to best support our wildlife.

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WILDLIFE RESCUE ORGANISATIONAL POLICIES

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Lucy Steele (founder of Wild Things Rescue) & Emily Elliott (Supervising Rehabber at RSPCA Oak & Furrows) talked about the specific policies that can help Wildlife Rescues to operate as efficiently as possible: supporting staff and making sure that a Wildlife Rescue is always operating within the law AND ensuring that all wildlife casualties are offered the best care.  Lucy was specifically featuring the different written policies that Wild Things Rescue have set in place and utilised to enable a great work environment and to ensure that wildlife casualties receive the very best medical and rehabilitative treatment.  Emily talked about her general experience (having rehabilitated wildlife long term at what was an independent and now a RSPCA centre) on why having policies to all work by is so important and how various polices feature in her working life (enabling a positive work space) ensuring the best hospital environment for the wildlife casualties she has treated over the years. 

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HELPING WILD BIRDS IN PRACTICE

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Beth Ragan (both a RVN and one of the original founding members of FAWR) will be talking about her work not only rehabbing birds through the work of the Feline & Wildlife Rescue Nottingham but also in practice, as a Vet Nurse.  Beth has extensive experience and - very importantly and interestingly - due to her General Vet Practice work, she was also able to notice all of the ways and reasons why wild Birds weren’t necessarily getting full medical care in Vet Practices (often just due to lack of knowledge and confidence with each species) so she created a ‘Treating Wild Birds In Practice How To Guide Pdf’ that has enabled a lot of Vet Practices in Nottingham to treat birds coming in AND has been made part of the ‘Vet Wildlife Support Package’, going out to Vets nationwide.  Thanks to Beth’s experience and efforts, a lot of wild Birds are benefitting and she talked about her experiences in general and how she thinks that Vet Practices and Wildlife Rescues can specifically support one another to give more wild Birds a second chance. 

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WILDLIFE IN LAW

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Advocates For Animals Solicitors kindly offered a Q&A on how our UK wildlife are protected and feature within our UK legislation.  The first half of this webinar covered the various laws and legislation and went over the ways that wildlife are featured and protected and the rights that they have.  The second half of this webinar (each half is about 20 minutes long) was a Q&A for Wildlife Rescues/Rehabbers and Vet Professionals to make sure that they fully understand the laws and wildlife rights.  Due to lack of time, if a Wildlife Rescue or Vet had a specific situation that they wish to get advice on, they were asked to contact A4A after the webinar and there may have been consultancy fees that needed to be paid if specific answers - bespoke to the case - were required.  A4A offer an exceptional service (at a very low rate, in order to help as many animals as possible) but we must be careful not to expect free services or legal practices like A4A, fighting for the rights of animals everywhere, will not be able to be self sustaining. 

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