05/20/2025
Say it louder for the people in the back!!!!
People think the hardest part of wildlife rehab is losing animals. Sometimes, itās actually people.
Last night, I was on the hotline with someone whose cat had gotten into a wild rabbit nest. Two baby bunnies survived the initial attack but only barely. I calmly explained what needed to happen: they needed antibiotics immediately. They needed a licensed rehabber or a 24-hour emergency vet. This wasnāt just a āwait and seeā situation. Cat saliva carries deadly bacteria, and untreated, even a small scrape can be fatal.
She didnāt want to drive. She didnāt want to wait until morning. She didnāt want to bring them to the emergency vet.
But somehow, she did have time to drive to the store to buy kitten milk and an eyedropper, so she could feed them herself, despite being told not to. Despite being told it could cause them to aspirate and die.
And then, when we couldnāt provide a magical solution on her terms and timeline, the texts turned cruel.
She told me sheād just āput them outside.ā
She told me it was because of me.
She mocked me. Dismissed me. Told me I was a problem.
But let me be very clear: it wasnāt because of me. It was because her cat attacked them.
It was because she didnāt want to do what was needed.
And in the end, the babies died overnight.
Another rehabber reached out to her in the morning for me and found out they hadnāt made it. Thatās exactly why we pleaded for her to act the night before. Weāre not trying to be difficult. Weāre trying to save lives. But people lash out when the solution requires any level of discomfort or effort.
Let me remind you:
I donāt get paid for this.
None of us do.
We are a 100% volunteer-run wildlife rehab.
All donations go to food, medicine, enclosures, not salaries.
We operate below the bottom line most months.
And yet we still answer the hotline. At 7 a.m. At midnight. In between vet visits, and while weāre bottle feeding babies.
We deserve to eat dinner with our families.
We deserve to sleep.
We deserve to not be screamed at if we donāt respond to a text within 30 seconds.
We deserve basic human decency.
You donāt have to thank us. But you do have to stop blaming us for the consequences of your own choices.
If thatās too much to ask, then youāre not trying to help wildlife. Youāre trying to control the people who do.
Wildlife rehab is hard. But itās made ten times harder by people who turn their guilt into cruelty when they donāt get what they want.
Please be kind. Weāre doing everything we can, with far less than what we need.
This photo is of a baby that was brought to us in a timely manner and survived after being bitten by a cat. This is whatās possible when people act quickly and compassionately.
