Why does it benefit YOU to have the Wildlife Care Badge (saving time and tears too, in the long run) as well as local wildlife?
Until the WCB was launched, it was almost always the case - for great Wildlife Rehabbers across the UK - that you had to concentrate your efforts on BOTH running a high welfare Rescue and also (probably) on investing some time into trying to stop bad practices at other local (and some not so local) Wildlife Rescues whom you were aware might have been causing accidental harm to wildlife by rehabbing inappropriately. Overall, your priority - if you were a great Wildlife Rescue - was running your own Rescue first and helping the animals that you could: the wildlife casualties/orphans that were right in front of you.
This is really admirable but, now that the WCB has launched (thanks to the united efforts of Vet Professionals & Wildlife Rehabbers) I think that there’s a way where you can have BOTH, effortlessly: you can run a great Rescue AND also feel increasingly safe and happy in the knowledge that wildlife across the UK are starting to ONLY be taken to high welfare Rescues/Rehabbers (not ending up stuck in bad situations with Rehabbers who can't really help them).
By getting the WCB, your Wildlife Rescue can be a high welfare example to others and a proven place in your area to take wildlife to (and it only takes a few hours to get the WCB).
Then, BECAUSE you’re not the only Wildlife Rescue to get the WCB (to prove your standards and be celebrated) because other Rescues/Rehabbers across the UK are also getting the WCB (proving their standards and promoting themselves as Wildlife Rescues in their area) well, without having to do anything else, you are all creating/shaping a vitally important ‘WCB Map of Wildlife Rescues/Rehabbers' (a map of WCB Holders who can be trusted by members of the public to treat and rehab wildlife at a high standard) and soon - as members of the public are educated to look for WCB Holders to take casualties/orphans to - our wildlife casualties in the UK will ONLY start to be taken to all of your high welfare Rescues, no longer at risk of being taken to a 'Rescue' who isn't in fact set up to offer proper care.
And what does that look like, for all of us?
Well…
Firstly... We can all sleep easier because we can feel safe in the knowledge that wildlife casualties and orphans are ALL getting the care they need, from Rescues/Rehabbers with great premises, a good knowledge base and high welfare standards.
Secondly... WCB holding Wildlife Rescues/Rehabbers can focus ONLY on your own rehab efforts, no longer having to divide some of your time into stopping Rehabbers with bad practices in your area, or phoning the RSPCA trying to get questionable Wildlife Rescues shut down or trying to convince a Rescue with bad practices to give up their animals to you. You can focus all of you time instead on your own important work, content that all of the wildlife in your area are being brought to you or to other proven WCB Holders in your area.
And…. As the WCB keeps going and as our priority becomes helping WCB Holders maintain standards (as we will have - just imagine! - fulfilled our goal of high welfare Rescues being represented, promoted and made accessible across all of the UK) so we can now focus our time and efforts on being a structural support for all WCB Holders, helping to maintain high standards during busy times, helping everyone to support one another, making it as easy as possible for Vet Professionals and Wildlife Rehabbers to support one another (to best save local wildlife) or we can just be helping new Wildlife Rehabbers to get set up properly with mentors and experience and advice and the right steps taken in the right order, so that wildlife always get what they deserve: the very best care.