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 began to notice 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 is in need of 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.