Wildlife Emergencies

Every year, PETA receives numerous e-mails from caring people who have found injured or orphaned wildlife. It's important to be armed with a few supplies and some know-how, in case this happens to you.

Be prepared! Keep the following items in your vehicle at all times so that you'll be ready to respond should you encounter an animal in distress:

A medium-sized cardboard or plastic carrier and a cover to keep the interior dark (darkness reduces stress)
Sheets, T-shirts, or sweatshirts to use as bedding and to wrap around animals and safely transfer them to the carrier (animals' claws can get tangled in towels)
A broom, which can be used to gently coax a wild animal into a carrier or away from a dangerous area
Locations and phone numbers for Animal Control, a 24-hour emergency veterinary hospital that accepts wildlife, and a reputable wildlife rehabilitation facility (do your homework!)

Determine if the animal really needs help! Young animals should be left alone unless they are obviously sick or hurt or they are orphaned babies. Otherwise, their best chance of survival is in the care of their parents, who are probably foraging nearby.

Nestling Songbirds

Fallen nestlings—babies with no feathers or just a little fuzz—should be returned to the nest if they aren't injured or unresponsive. It is a myth that parent birds will reject their babies because a human has touched them.
If you can't locate or reach the nest, make a surrogate home for nestlings out of a small basket, a kitchen strainer, or a small plastic container with holes punched in the bottom. Line it with shredded tissue paper and hang it within 10 feet from where the bird was found. Get out of sight and watch to make sure the parents return.
If parents do not return within one hour or if the nestling is injured or unresponsive, use your carrier to transport the animal to an expert.!

Fledgling Songbirds

Fledglings—young birds who have half an inch or more of tail feathers and are learning to fly—do not usually need to be rescued. Their parents are surely nearby and are best able to teach them how to survive in the wild. If necessary, fledglings can be moved a short distance to a dense shrub to keep them safe from children, traffic, dogs, and cats.
If a fledgling is injured, use your carrier to transport the animal to an expert.

Rabbits

Cottontail rabbits make fur-lined nests in small depressions in grass, and people frequently disturb these nests when they mow their lawns or rake leaves. If a nest is disturbed and the baby rabbits are uninjured, place them back in the nest. Female cottontails usually only come to feed their young twice each day, at dawn and dusk, because they don't want to attract predators with their comings and goings. If you are unsure whether the mother is coming back to feed the babies, try placing a string over the nest. If the string is in the same place the following morning, the mother has not returned.
If a baby rabbit is injured or you know for sure that he or she has been orphaned, use your carrier to transport the animal to an expert.

Squirrels

Young squirrels are often found on the ground when their nest has been blown out of a tree during a storm. If the squirrels are uninjured, place them in a shallow box such as a shoebox and set it at the base of the tree. The mother will likely retrieve the young and transport them to a safer location, but only if she feels safe. Watch the nest from afar and be sure to keep dogs, cats, and children away.
If a baby squirrel is injured or if the mother does not return, use your carrier to transport the animal to an expert.

It can be tempting to try to rehabilitate baby animals yourself, but don't do it. You won't be doing the animals any favors. Upon release, they won't know how to properly forage, find adequate shelter, or evade predators. Many will succumb to parasites and disease because they have not had the opportunity to build up a natural immunity to them. Also, in most cases it's against the law to keep wild animals without the required permits, even if you plan to return them to the wild.

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