Wildlife rehabilitation aims to return injured or orphaned animals to the wild, but success rates vary. Evidence-based decision-making improves both welfare and conservation outcomes.
Wildlife rehabilitation exists in a welfare tension between the acute welfare of the individual animal and the longer-term welfare implications of the rehabilitation process. Long-term captivity for unrehabilitatable animals can cause its own welfare problems. The human habituation that undermines post-release survival must be actively prevented in species where it matters. Good rehabilitation practice requires honest assessment of release prospects and willingness to make difficult euthanasia decisions when long-term captivity with low welfare is the realistic alternative to release.