Be able to Rehabilitate Wildlife

Be able to Rehabilitate Wildlife

In this assignment I will be explaining in detail the steps required to rehabilitate and injured animal from a given scenario. The scenario I have chosen is ‘you’ve found a badger at the side of the road that looks tame, it doesn’t appear to have any injuries but it may have been hit by a car.’ I am going to include information on the immediate steps that should be taken if you were in this situation, suggestions of treatment, things to consider when rehabilitating the animal and information that links into the subject from the Vet Surgeons Act 1991 and the Wildlife Countryside Act Sections 1, 4, 5 and 9. I will also be discussing the ethical issues which may surround rescuing and rehabilitating a badger which may possibly have been hit by a car.

Badgers can be really dangerous animals so therefore it is best not to handle them unless you are very experienced, the best first step to take is to observe it from afar and then call for assistance from an animal hospital. A common sign that a badger is hurt or injured and requires assistance is when it is approachable because badgers are naturally suspicious of humans and if approached will run away if they sense your presence but this still means that you should not approach them without experienced assistance as you should never endanger yourself or anyone else to rescue a wild animal. Once it has been decided that the badger should definitely receive some help the first thing that must be done is it must be captured. Safety must come first so therefore especially when it comes to a suspected road traffic accident; you must ensure that you find a safe place to stop; you put your hazard warning lights on and place a warning triangle behind your car to alert other drivers of the hazard to avoid any accidents. While waiting for assistance you should take into account any potential hazards or escape routes for when capturing such as rivers, streams, drains or rough terrain. When approaching the badger be very wary as even if the badger seems submissive it could suddenly turn very aggressive and when approaching it is best to have two or three quiet people slowly approach rather than the badger be surrounded by lots of people, when capturing you should also try to keep handling to a minimum to prevent causing unnecessary stress to the animal. The best thing to do once you have approached the badger is to cover it up with something to try and calm it down; you could then put a dustbin or a strong box with a heavy weight on it to keep it where it is before you properly capture it, this will also help to minimise stress. It is also really important that you take note of the exact location where the badger was found as this is important for the release of the badger; they need to be released in the exact same spot so that they can find their way back to their sett and family. The best way to capture them after this would be by manoeuvring a dog-grasper around the badger’s neck, and ensure that it is placed behind the ears to minimise the chance of it becoming dislodged. Since the badger is conscious you should give it a stick or something to distract it from biting the handler when you go to grab the loose skin around the rump of the badger so that you can safely manoeuvre it into a carry cage. When lifting the badger ensure that its weight is supported through the rump and not through the dog-grasper around its neck. Ensure that it is fully secure in the carry cage and in the vehicle as you drive it to safety. You should drive them straight to a veterinary surgery or rehabilitation centre so that they can be examined and checked over to ensure that they have no internal or underlying injuries as this may well be the case if the badger was hit by a car.

After the badger has been assessed and any initial injuries have been treated it now should be considered about the actual rehabilitating of the animal and how to nurse it back to full health so that it can be re-released. There are many things to consider when you rehabilitate any animal including a badger such as all of the factors they may require, what they eat, whether you have the space and equipment needed to successfully rehabilitate them and how you are going to release them using either soft release or hard release, deciding this also depends on things such as how much you have had to handle the animal and how adjusted the animal has become to human contact. Another issue which must be considered when rehabilitating an animal is whether there are any legislations or laws stating that it is forbidden and whether it is ethically right to interfere with nature.

Badgers have their own legislation in the UK; The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and this legislation states that it is against the law to –

·         Wilfully kill, injure or take a badger.
 

·         Cruelly mistreat a badger.
 

·         Dig for a badger.
 

·         Intentionally or recklessly damage or destroy a badger sett – or obstruct access to it.
 

·         Cause a dog to enter a badger sett.
 

·         Disturb a badger when it is occupying a sett.

However there are exceptions to this law so therefore humans are allowed to interfere with a badger if the intention is to save its life and as long as they have the correct training needed to do this safely. It is also essential that the animal is released where it was first found so that it can be reunited with its family as badgers use the same setts for years and pass them down from generation to generation so they must be able to find their way home. Badgers are also protected by The Wildlife and Countryside Act under schedule 7. It is also stated in the Vet Surgeons Act 1991 that when rehabilitating a badger if not fully qualified you cannot perform any veterinary procedures on a badger or administer any type of medication.

The first thing to do once you have the badger in your care is to register it with either the NFBG rehabilitation group, the Secret World Wildlife Release Officer or the RSPCA Rehabilitation Coordinator. This is so that they can be identified and monitored after release. Since the badger is an adult it should be treated and rehabilitated as quickly as possible so that it can be released, this minimises stress and gives it the best chance at survival after being re-released into the wild, this is also especially important between January and October because the badger could have cubs back at its sett which are relying on it for their own survival. During the period of recuperation the badger should be kept in a secure facility bearing in mind that they are capable of breaking through a wooden door in one night and your own health and safety should be top priority. Warmth by the way of a heat lamp is important for badgers and using an infrared lamp allows you to be able to see the animal easily without it affecting the animal. To start off with you should place the animal on clean blankets as this makes it easier to monitor that the badger is passing urine and faeces normally and once this has been confirmed you can alter it to more natural bedding such as hay or straw. You should place the bedding material in one of the back corners of the enclosure so that when it comes to cleaning out you can use the alternate corner as this means the badger will always have somewhere comfortable to go and also that it is encouraged to move around which aids the healing process. When it comes to feeding fresh water should be available at all times in a non-tip bowl and should be fed on cooked chicken and rice most commonly, they may not eat for the first 4-5 days and if this happens then substitute fresh water with liquid lectade to help support them and then once they are back on solid food change back to normal drinking water. They should be fed in the evenings as this is when they would start to look for food in the wild. Another thing to aid them is to provide them with logs as they can claw and chew at these as they would in their natural environment so therefore this will aid the healing process. You should then release the badger using the hard-release method which is where, once they are fully recovered you take them to the spot where they were found and just release them and leave them to return to normal life, with no more interference from people.

I believe that the rehabilitation of the badger was completely ethical as if it had in fact being hit by a car that was humans that were at fault so therefore we should do everything in our power to help the badger recover. I also believe that with badgers hard release is a lot more ethical as this means that minimum human interference is involved which is what is best for the animals and helps to keep them wild. It is a lot less ethical to interfere with a badger that is naturally ill as this can be seen as interfering with nature or god and is not necessarily seen as right but if humans are at fault then they should do everything in their power the mend the situation.