Wildlife rehabilitation involves rescuing, treating, and releasing injured wild animals, but raises important ethical questions about which animals should be rehabilitated, treatment intensity, and when release is appropriate.
Wildlife rehabilitation ethics require balancing individual animal welfare against practical and ecological considerations. Animals that cannot be safely released face a choice between euthanasia or a life in captivity, which may or may not meet their behavioral and social needs. The rehabilitation process itself involves restraint, medical procedures, and human contact that can be stressful for wild animals. Release into inappropriate habitat or at wrong seasons can result in animals suffering and dying shortly after release.