When most people find an animal outside that looks like it is in trouble, the urge is to help. However, sometimes when we think we are helping, we might being doing more harm than good. For this reason, I'd like to recommend taking a breath and thinking about your next move before you act on the behalf of an animal you've found.
Before the internet was so readily available, we relied on our personal experiences and learning as well as those around us. We used our common sense to the best of our abilities and if we didn't know something we had to look it up in encyclopedias or look through the YellowPages for a rehabber or wildlife control of some other sort. We also had to walk to a phone....
Now, we walk around with little computers in our pockets. There is a handy app called Animal Help Now and it is free. Wherever you happen to be, you can find the number to the closest wildlife help center. You also have the power of Google (although you'll need some critical thinking skills to discern what is of use because we can't believe everything we see there).
Over the years, I've learned a bunch of random helpful tidbits about helping wildlife. For example, if a fawn's ear tips are curled, they definitely need help. If they're not curled, we should leave them alone because they don't have a scent and mom is likely nearby. Baby bunnies leave home way smaller than you'd expect and you can tell how old they are by the fur on top of their heads. I believe mom only feeds them twice a day. Turtles should only be moved across the road in the direction they were traveling already and we shouldn't relocate them elsewhere. If we find birds with even a little blood, it is an emergency because they don't have much. And after a cat bite, they need antibiotics within 24 hours or they're likely to die...
So much information is right there. Kitten related information is too - don't feed a cold kitten and only feed kitten milk replacer. And yet, I see mistakes being made daily. Of course, we don't mean to make these mistakes and hurt the very things we are trying to help. We don't know what we don't know. I too need to remember to pause before acting sometimes. This is just a reminder for all of us to take that pause and use our handy little computers aka phones to make sure we're helping in the right way before acting when we aren't sure.
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