WSU offers volunteer opportunities to end statewide wildlife rehabilitator shortage

PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine says there is a shortage of wildlife rehabilitators in the eastern part of the state, and they are asking for volunteers to fill the void.

There are only seven permitted wildlife rehab centers east of the Cascades, and WSU is one of them. What makes the university's program stand out, is that it is the only facility that operates 24-hours per day, and it's the only place that will take in orphaned or abandoned animals.

Washington State University

On average, WSU's Veterinary Teaching Hospital takes care of more than 200 wild mammals every year. The majority of them are orphaned or abandoned baby squirrels, raccoons and rabbits. 

Dr. Marcie Logsdon, a wildlife veterinarian at WSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, says their facility needs the most help in providing care for these young orphaned and abandoned mammals.

"If you have a raptor with a broken leg or a fox that’s been hit by a car, we are the place to bring it; we do exceptionally well at providing care and managing that," said Logsdon. "We are not inherently better at raising a baby squirrel. We do it because somebody needs to, but a wildlife rehabilitator can do an excellent job of raising up a baby squirrel to release and those are the skills we hope to focus on."

Becoming a permitted wildlife rehabilitator in Washington state requires six months or 1,000 hours of experience. Logsdon hopes that offering volunteer and network opportunities to the community will get more people licensed, and ultimately end the shortage.

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Lillian Zachary, a second-year veterinary medicine student at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, feeds a baby squirrel with a syringe on Saturday, March 25, 2023, in the exotics department of the Veterinary Teaching Hospita

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WSU veterinarians say that people were adopting and buying more pets during the COVID pandemic. Because of this, the need to care for more client-owned animals has increased, which has lead to an urgent need for permitted wildlife rehabilitators. 

"The reason we’re reaching out to the public now is that it’s coming down to hard times for a lot of facilities," Adams said. "The veterinary profession has gotten really, really busy since COVID and a lot of the clinics that used to be willing to take wildlife in are having to cut down on that because they just don’t have the manpower." 

The main obstacles wildlife rehabilitation centers face is how they get injured wildlife to the facility, and where to relocate the animals after their healthy.

The facility says they are seeking volunteer wildlife transporters in the Clarkston, Spokane, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla areas who can shuttle injured wildlife to WSU for treatment. Additionally, they are looking for property owners who are interested in the release of these animals on their land.

Anyone interested is asked to contact Logsdon at mlogsdon@wsu.edu.