Wildlife rehabilitation saves injured and orphaned animals but raises complex welfare and ecological questions. Evidence-based rehabilitation prioritizes animals with good release prognosis and minimizes suffering during care.
Wildlife rehabilitation ethics requires honest assessment of when treatment serves the animal versus when it prolongs suffering without meaningful benefit. The instinct to help every injured animal can lead to poorly prognosed animals spending weeks in stressful captivity before dying anyway, when euthanasia would have been the welfare-appropriate choice. High-quality rehabilitation that prioritizes animal welfare during care — minimizing handling, providing species-appropriate environment, and making evidence-based release decisions — produces better outcomes than well-intentioned but poorly equipped attempts. The most important welfare decision in wildlife rehabilitation is often the decision not to attempt treatment, made by someone with sufficient knowledge to assess prognosis honestly.