Volunteer Wildlife Caring KATE VANDERSLICE
K
ate Vanderslice is the recently-appointed volunteer coordinator for Wildlife Care Association, a nonprofit, volunteerbased association that rescues and rehabilitates wild animals. Here, Vanderslice describes her daily duties.
Volunteers are responsible for intake and the everyday cleaning and upkeep of our facility. We couldn’t do it without them.
Volunteers provide 98 percent of our wildlife care, support and maintenance.
What drew you to working with Wildlife Care Association? My parents are very active people, so I went hiking and camping as much as we could get away with when I was a kid. But I didn’t fall in love with being outside until doing field work after earning my bachelor’s degree in biology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I did field work with plants, rattlesnake research, worked a little bit with birds and collected data on the behavior of small mammals. Having background knowledge about what’s going on in the environment around you brings out the wonder and joy of it all. It sounds like the WCA is the perfect place for you. It is! I had just moved back to Sacramento after completing a job in Indiana and started volunteering for the WCA and sort of got lucky. I had an email bounce back from the volunteer coordinator address because the position was open, so I applied and started the job in late October last year.
JL By Jessica Laskey Giving Back
30
IES APR n 17
Kate Vanderslice with one of the Wildlife Care Association's animal ambassadors. What do volunteers do at the WCA? Volunteers provide 98 percent of our wildlife care, support and
maintenance. Last season, we took in more than 5,000 critters from more than 140 species to be cared for and released back into the environment.
When an animal is brought to the WCA, how does it make it back into the wild? If you notice that a wild animal is sick or injured, you can call our hotline and get information about how to safely catch it and bring it in— but only if it’s actually a wild animal and not someone’s pet that wandered or flew away. (If someone brings us a domestic animal, we encourage the rescuer to take it to the local SPCA.) After intake, the animal is taken to triage to get a moment of peace and calm down after being manhandled. The triage staff then examines them. Depending on how old animal is and what it needs, the staff will determine next steps and develop a long-term care plan. We provide the animal food, water and medical treatment to the best of our ability and give it enrichment once it’s well enough to keep its mind and body active. But the best part is when we get to release the animal back into the wild, which is our main goal. To put so much love and care into an animal and then