Wildlife rehabilitation aims to return injured and orphaned animals to the wild but quality varies enormously between facilities.
Wildlife rehabilitation is welfare-positive when done well but can cause harm when done poorly. Common problems include inappropriate diets causing metabolic bone disease, inadequate space preventing fitness for release, and human imprinting preventing survival. The decision to treat versus euthanise is ethically complex — prolonging suffering to achieve a low-probability release is poor welfare practice. High-quality rehabilitation requires veterinary oversight, species-specific protocols, and honest release fitness assessment.