WREN Volunteer Transporter - Valdosta, Georgia

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Thank you for your desire to rescue wildlife! WREN has volunteer transporters throughout Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Typically, the transports involve picking up an already contained, orphaned mammal, injured or orphaned bird, or injured reptile and transporting them to the nearest permitted rehabilitator or a specific veterinary clinic that triages wildlife. Sometimes a transport may require capturing a raptor, waterfowl, turtle, fawn, or rabies vector species. We do not expect anyone to do anything that they are not comfortable with and risk injuries. Your safety is always the first priority! So as far as your involvement, it is up to you! We try to renest and reunite any young wildlife if possible. And we also try to get the finder to transport if they are able. This is always the fastest route, and we want to create a sense of shared responsibility of caring for OUR native wildlife. We also abide by state and federal regulations that relate to wildlife rehabilitation and transportation of wildlife.

What to expect: You may be sent requests weekly or once a year depending on the need in your area. Wildlife emergencies are not that predictable. But we do take most of our calls from urbanized areas and during the months of February through September. Most of the transports are at least an hour long while some involve multiple volunteers to complete a transport that takes several hours. We won't transport an animal until we have received permission from a rehabilitator or veterinary clinic if required. Volunteers do not keep the animals overnight except for very rare circumstances. Volunteers will also not typically handle, feed, or offer fluids during transport except for special cases. We will either text and/ or post transport needs on our Facebook WREN Transporter Group Page. We choose to do which ever one will yield the quickest results. You do not have to respond to the text or FB message if you cannot transport at the specified time and day. If you are not able to help with any transports upon request within a nine-month period, you will be removed from our volunteer network.

We will offer free training at our 2019 wildlife rehab symposium with UGA in Athens, Georgia. This will take place on February the 2nd, Saturday. We will offer lectures on capture and handling, transporting, and renesting and reuniting techniques. But you do not need training to get started. We will provide instructions per case. Most of what you learn will be hands-on.

If you are interested in capturing: We can recommend gloves and capture equipment. The best thing to use is a cardboard box or Rubbermaid container with proper holes for ventilation. We want to provide just enough room for the animal to lie down or be in a nesting or sitting position. The less room they have to move, the safer it is for them. We do not prefer kennels or dog and cat crates for birds that have their flight feathers as they can damage them through the openings. And we try to get the finder to provide the container first if that is a possibility.

We work with a network of state and federally permitted rehabbers and use Animal Help Now to find the nearest rehabber or vet clinic if we do not have a resource in a particular area. Animal Help Now has a free phone app to find the nearest assistance based on one’s location. We highly recommend using their app and recommend you passing this information on to your local veterinary clinic, police department, and others that could benefit from this resource. Most of the time animals are rescued with chronic, irreparable trauma is due to the finder not knowing who to call and it taking days or weeks to find help. So sharing this resource with others will help many animals!!!
Please do not hesitate to ask any questions via volunteerwren@gmail.com. If you are ready to sign up, you can complete our form below. If you do not receive a confirmation, please e-mail us. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Volunteer form - http://eepurl.com/dseYP5

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