04/26/2026
Open Letter to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Richard Heilbrun Wildlife Division Deputy Director
We encourage our supporters and followers to read the attached article and consider signing the petition in support of our efforts.
• New Texas wildlife rescue rules from TPWD spark backlash
• Petition · Protect wildlife rehabilitation in Texas - United States · Change.org
On behalf of Texas Metro Wildlife Rehabilitators (TMWR), we are writing to express serious concern about the proposed TPWD regulations affecting wildlife rehabilitation and to offer constructive alternatives.
TMWR is a frontline organization that trains, mentors, and supports volunteer rehabilitators who care for thousands of orphaned and injured native Texas animals each year. Most rehabilitators balance full-time jobs, families, fundraising, and round‑the‑clock animal care. Many permit holders already experience burnout due to cost, caseload, and limited resources. The proposed regulatory changes would further restrict recruitment and retention, and would likely reduce the number of active permittees statewide.
Key concerns:
• Declining permittee numbers: TPWD reports approximately 400 permitted rehabilitators in Texas — an inadequate figure for a state of our size. Tighter rules will likely shrink this pool further.
• One-size regulation is impractical: Wildlife rehabilitation is highly variable by species, region, and facility capacity. Attempting to regulate every local, dynamic situation uniformly hinders practical care and drive some activity underground.
• Burdensome continuing education: Ongoing training is valuable, but mandatory, one‑size continuing-education requirements can be unnecessary and inefficient for rehabilitators who specialize (for example) in squirrels or a narrow caseload.
• Communication and representation gaps: There is currently no clear, transparent mechanism for TPWD to consult those who actually perform day‑to‑day rehabilitation and hold permits.
TMWR recommendations:
Establish an elected, regional advisory body of permitted rehabilitators and sub-permittees to counsel TPWD. Representatives should be elected by peers within five regional structures to ensure local needs and realities are represented. Some larger regions may require more than one representative:
North: Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Potter, Randall, Lubbock, Taylor, Wichita
South: Hidalgo, Cameron, Webb, Nueces, Starr, Bee, Brooks
East: Jefferson, Hardin, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Smith, Bowie, Harrison
West: El Paso, Midland, Ector, Brewster, Presidio, Crockett, Tom Green
Central: Travis, Bexar, Williamson, Hays, Bell, McLennan, Brazos
Adopt a growth-oriented strategy to recruit and retain rehabilitators — incentives, outreach partnerships, volunteer pathways, and reduced administrative barriers — rather than relying primarily on more regulation.
Make continuing education accessible and flexible: encourage voluntary, targeted professional development and provide modular options appropriate to species specialization and regional needs.
Position TPWD as a resource and partner: provide technical support, centralized information, and streamlined permitting assistance rather than prescriptive oversight that fails to account for local capacity.
The public, game wardens, and animal shelters all rely on a sustainable network of permitted volunteers to care for Texas wildlife. We urge TPWD to pause implementation of overly prescriptive rules and work with a representative body of rehabilitators to develop practical, regionally appropriate standards and growth strategies.
Thank you for considering these recommendations. We welcome the opportunity to meet and help design a collaborative path forward.
Respectfully,
Nancy Chinchilla, TMWR President
Sandy Leissler, TMWR Vice President
Donna Summers, TMWR Secretary
Critics say new rules could hurt wildlife rescue efforts.
