🪪 Regulations & Licensing · 8 min
The realities: time, money and death
Why this matters
Many enthusiastic beginners burn out in the first year or two. The material below is the part of the Study Guide most likely to change whether you should do this at all, which is exactly why it comes before the animal care chapters.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Describe the realistic time and financial demands of rehabilitation
- Explain the rules around fees, donations and incorporation
- Articulate why euthanasia is a normal part of competent rehabilitation
Time
Hatchling songbirds are fed every 15 to 20 minutes from early morning to evening. Very young mammals need feeding every couple of hours around the clock. Then diets are prepared, housing is cleaned, cages are built and maintained, water is changed, bottles are scrubbed, and it starts again.
Once your number circulates, you will get calls for animals genuinely in need, and calls for stray cats, raccoons in chimneys, presumed-abandoned fawns and skunks under porches. Much of your phone time will be spent convincing people not to interfere. That is not a distraction from the work. Good rehabilitation is, in large part, preventative rehabilitation.
Money
You are not permitted to charge a fee for caring for wildlife. It is a common misconception that the state pays for wildlife care. It does not. Food, caging, handling equipment, protective clothing, medications, veterinary bills, fuel, cleaning supplies, utilities and reference books come out of your pocket.
You may accept donations. If you are not incorporated and registered, you may be personally liable for taxes on donated money, so speak to an accountant before accepting significant donations. Most larger facilities incorporate as a 501(c)(3) and register with the NYS Charities Bureau, both to accept tax-deductible donations and to limit personal liability. Very few licensed rehabilitators in the United States receive enough in donations to cover their costs.
Dealing with death
More than half of the animals brought to rehabilitation centers either die or must be euthanized. Some will seem to be doing well and then die unexpectedly. Others will die after heartbreaking effort, sleepless nights and expensive medication. You will become attached. It will happen again and again.
Sometimes the ultimate test of a rehabilitator is caring enough about an animal to end its life. A gray squirrel with an amputated leg is not releasable, but could live for years in captivity. Placements with licensed facilities are very hard to find, especially for common species. Your license does not allow you to be a long-term holding facility for non-releasable animals. No animal should spend its life in a cage because a rehabilitator cannot face a euthanasia decision.
Practical questions to answer before you take your first animal
- Who will perform euthanasia, and by what technique? Many humane methods require injectable drugs and a veterinarian.
- How will you dispose of carcasses?
- Who is your qualified substitute caretaker when you cannot be there?
- What do local zoning ordinances say about housing wild animals where you live?
This lesson is part of the NY Wildlife Rehabilitator Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.