England has many volunteers who give up their time to help hares to hedgehogs, bats to otters, and seals to adders! Most shelters are overwhelmed due to traffic, litter and vandalism. So the best way to help firstly is preventive. Life a simple sustainable life, choose reusable over disposable and don’t drop litter. Remove chemicals from gardens, and don’t encourage certain creatures if you live with or near natural predators (cats chase birds and bats, dogs chase hedgehogs etc). Read how to make roads safer for wildlife.
Use no-dig gardening to protect wildlife. Use fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife). Learn how to create gardens safe for pets (use humane slug/snail deterrents). Avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Like everywhere, animal rescue shelters are running on tiny shoestrings due to reduced budgets since the pandemic, and more animals needing help. The best ways to help are to volunteer or donate money (can be anonymous through Charities Aid Foundation, just tick the box).
who to call (to help injured/orphaned wildlife)
Although most vets will treat/euthanise injured wildlife (at no cost to you), it’s good to keep hone numbers on-hand of local wildlife rescues and wildlife rehabilitators, as they have more expertise and volunteers who can advise (and visit in person for larger creatures like badgers and deer). Keep a large box (with punched holes for air) in your car boot, along with towels (no tassles to avoid tangling) and thick gloves. For urgent advice, call Tiggywinkles.
RSPCA can take ages to arrive due to being busy. So for large creatures, call the police as a traffic hazard and marksmen can humanely shoot animals in pain, if there’s a long wait for help. Councils can help by not planting flowers etc in railings, as this often attracts deer at dawn and dusk, who then get stuck.
Some creatures need specialist advice, so call:
- British Hedgehog Preservation Society
- Bat Conservation Society
- Raptor Rescue
- Amphibian & Reptile Conservation
how to raise funds for local wildlife shelters
Give direct or donate anonymously through Charities Aid Foundation (just tick the box). Most wildlife shelters welcome old newspapers, towels (no tassles/strings that could catch), medical supplies (some human equipment can be used for animals, check first) and safe vehicles (to transport animals). You could donate practical skills (building, accounting). Donate unwanted fur coats (cut into squares to make ‘surrogate mums’ to calm orphaned baby wildlife).
Support Simon’s legacy of a wildlife rescue centre. Gift copies of Practical Wildlife Care (by the late founder of Tiggywinkles (who built enormous knowledge during his lifetime, despite no formal training). And Wildlife Search & Rescue (an American book, with useful info on helping injured/orphaned wildlife and safe capture methods).
Gift your rescue an Armor Hand Protector. Invented by an American vet (who needed $20,000 of treatment after an angry patient bit her!), these vegan gloves offer low-stress handling and bite protection. They are washable to reduce disease, but use a microplastic catcher. Read How to Hold Animals.
There are many clothing brands that help native wildlife, including Wildlife Aid Foundation that offers organic cotton clothing of all kinds. Profits are used to help native animals and birds that are injured or suffer trauma through contact with man. Its 300 volunteers help over 20,000 wildlife each year, from scaling trees to rescue stranded baby owls to cutting fox cubs from garden netting.
Often rescuers are so busy doing ‘the important stuff’ that the graphic design, promotion and bookkeeping gets left on the backburner. For a few pounds, you can really up the game for your local wildlife rescue, and generate donation drives and campaigns. Etsy has good templates to edit.
Simon Cowell MBE (not that one, though he did say using his name got him instant restaurant reservations) finally succumbed to an aggressive cancer in June 2024. His organisation Wildlife Aid (Surrey) has rescued hundreds of thousands of animals, and also operates an emergency national helpline.
One of our most respected conservationists, in his book My Wild Life he writes of how he began to rescue wildlife in his garden, as a way to distract from his stress-induced health problems as a London city broker. He made potloads of money, but blacked out on a train due to stress, and eventually was sacked. This was the best thing to ever happen to him (and the hundreds of thousands of wildlife that have since been rescued by his charity).
Simon became quite well-known when his rescues appeared on national TV (he also reported on international issues like moon bears in Vietnam, wolves in Russia and mountain gorillas in the Congo). However, this outspoken man (charity patron Ricky Gervais called him ‘David Attenborough with Tourettes’) was not a fan of many wildlife TV documentaries that approach animals just for entertainment.
He believed that animals should always be left alone, unless they need help. He himself has been bitten by hedgehogs, gored by deer (one antler missed his jugular by around an inch) and one owl even sunk his talons into Simon’s scalp. But he knew they were doing this as they were scared, and believed that ‘celebrity wildlife documentaries’ do more harm than good. And as for caged animals – he wrote ‘Don’t get me started on zoos, because I hate them with a vengeance’.
Back home, Simon realised that nearly all wildlife casualties are due to issues from humans (netting, lead shot, litter, road accidents etc). When he knew he was dying from cancer (his daughter now continues his important work), he decided he wished to leave a legacy: The Wildlife Aid Centre will be made up of 20 acres of wetland habitat, a visitor centre and wildlife hospital (all on a former ecologically impoverished site, next to London’s M25).
The centre will create habitats and ponds for wildlife, along with secure buildings, garages and a workshop. There will be a Centre and Community Hub for visitors to engage with nature, and mature trees, hedges, shrublands and woodlands, to provide vital habitats for wildlife (and food like flowers and berries). Two orchards are also planned to provide more natural food for local animals. Sponsorship opportunities from companies are welcome.
You can donate at Just Giving to reach the target of £4 million (it will cost over £12 million to build long-term but work can start soon as the Wildlife Aid Foundation has already contributed some costs). Or select ‘Wildlife Aid Foundation’ at Charities Aid Foundation and tick the box, to donate anonymously. Either way, tick the Gift Aid Box so the charity can claim back tax you pay, to increase each donation.
Wildlife Aid Shop offers lovely organic cotton t-shirts and sweatshirts for men, women and children (plus cotton grocery totes to replace plastic bags). So when time comes to replace, choose these instead. All are printed-on-demand on organic cotton and sent in zero waste packaging. A great way to raise funds, for things you would already buy.
easysearch lets you search online, and sponsors raise money for any small charity. If lots of people do this (performing just two average searches a day), the charity can earn thousands. Paid for by sponsors, this is a no-brainer.
Of course the best way to help any wildlife rescue is simply for all of us to live simple sustainable lives, so they have less work to do. Leave wildlife alone, garden organically and don’t drop litter. Simon asks us to all do ‘just one thing’. Pick up a rubber band or a piece of glass. Together this would amount to 29 billion actions alone across the UK.
