Current Update, As of 10/2025:
The Bi-State Wildlife Hotline was formed and intended to be a 24-hour telephone hotline for the residents of Missouri and Southwestern Illinois to find help with wildlife conflicts, and to help find a licensed, qualified rehabilitator when an animal was sick, injured and/or orphaned. After 13 years of providing this invaluable service to the public, free of charge, we were unable to sustain the staff and resources needed to continue our work as originally intended. For a while, we floundered, not really knowing how to still help wildlife in need without being able to provide this 24-hour, resource-hungry, overwhelming service as we had designed it. Currently, we have refocused our efforts on our Mange by Mail Program, which is offered nationwide to assist in the treatment of mange in foxes and coyotes, as well as providing backup services to several veterinary hospitals and animal rescue groups who often wind up with wildlife patients accidentally. We also specialize in the care of aquatic mammals such as river otters, beavers, and mink due to the fact that we have the facilities to house them properly and the expertise to care for their specific needs. We have been known to also pitch in when other local wildlife care centers have reached capacity, and we are able to assist with overflow.
You can still reach us on social media @WildlifeHotline and by phone at (636) 492-1610 or 1-855-945-3435 but will have to leave a message with your name, contact information, and how we may be able to assist you. We cannot offer a guaranteed response time because it depends on volunteer staffing levels which fluctuate wildly at certain times of year. You can also email us, which can be extremely helpful because it allows you to send us photos of the animal you need help with, at 1855wildhelp@gmail.com or help@wildlifehotline.com
Again, we cannot guarantee a rapid response, but we will always do our best to respond as quickly as possible especially from March – August of each year.
We still receive zero tax dollars, or public funding from any government agencies. We still depend on private donations from people like YOU to help any of the animals that we assist each year. We may not be taking in the hundreds upon hundreds of animal per year we once were, but now we tend to take on some of the most critical, complicated cases instead. In addition, specializing in aquatics is an expensive endeavor, as these species are costly to feed, house, and care for. If you or anyone you know would be interested in donating to support our efforts in preserving native wildlife and caring for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife, you can do so at any time by making a donation on our Donate Page. The direct link is http://www.wildlifehotline.com/donate if you wish to share this link.
As stated, we are still offering our Mange by Mail Program nationwide to treat mange infections in coyotes and foxes. You can find out more about that program here on our Mange by Mail Page. To ask questions about the Mange Program send an email to mange@wildlifehotline.com or mangebymail@gmail.com or call us at (636) 492-1610 Option 5, or 1-855-945-3435 Option 5. We are happy to answer your questions and help you get a fox or coyote treated near you. We do not offer this program to residents of the state of California due to pesticide reporting regulations specific to your state agricultural department, and we cannot ship to Canada or internationally due to customs and postal regulations. However, if you have a fox or coyote with mange in California or outside of the USA and need help, please email or call us and we will do our best to find the best option for you to still get help for that animal.
2024 & Earlier:
The Bi-State Wildlife Hotline is a not for-profit, tax-exempt charity that provides sick, injured and orphaned wildlife with rescue, rehabilitation, and re-release services. We also operate a 24-hour hotline to provide the public with 24-hour easy access to wildlife information and resources. We do this by offering wildlife coexistence education, humane conflict resolution advice, wildlife rescue services, and referrals to local wildlife resources when needed.
Our work is supported solely by private donations from people like YOU. In fact, we are 100% volunteer staffed. We receive no state or federal funding of any kind. To help support our cause, please donate at www.wildlifehotline.com/donate/
Over the years, we have found that most residents are unaware that their local animal control department does not handle wildlife calls of ANY kind. There are exceptions to this rule, but many cities and counties do not cover any sort of wildlife issues. Local police, fire, and parks departments do not have the training, manpower, or time to take these calls either. This leaves a lot of residents with nowhere to turn when a wild animal is clearly suffering in their yard, and they want to do something to either help the animal or protect themselves from what the animal might do in response to needing help. Your tax dollars fund the police, fire, animal control, and conservation departments, but try calling them when you have a raccoon or fox lying on the ground, clearly sick, having seizures at your child’s school bus stop. In most cities, (St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago included!) there are ZERO government agencies that will help or even talk to you about an issue like this. The only entities that can or will assist with wildlife issues are not for profit wildlife rescues that do not always have the staff to be open more than a few hours per day.
A group of these rehabilitators noticed the increasing frustration level in our calls as the years went by. Callers had been transferred, misdirected, redirected, and sent to voicemail numerous times before they finally found our number. By the time we had the opportunity to retrieve messages and return phone calls, it was often too late for the animal that needed us, and certainly too late for the caller who had spent the last 24 hours in angst trying to find someone who could help.
The staff at the Wildlife Hotline believes that many residents WANT to do the right thing when an animal needs help, or when they have a conflict with wildlife, but the time and energy needed to find out what the right thing IS can be overwhelming. We wanted to offer a simple, easy to reach, easy to talk to hotline where callers could talk to a LIVE person who could address their concerns and give them humane advice.
Our most common calls are orphans (found a baby bunny, squirrel, duckling, etc.), eviction advice (raccoon in the attic, skunk under the porch), and rescue/referrals (hawk can’t fly, raccoon hit by car, coyote with mange). We are 100% volunteer staffed, and our services are offered to the public free of charge. We depend on the public’s donations to keep this service available for our residents.