Information for Rescuers

HelpWildlife.co.uk was founded in 2005 by Sarah Argrave and is now part of the Starlight Trust, the charity run by Sarah and her husband, Dave. Sarah is assisted by a small number of volunteers in maintaining the directory and operating the helpdesk (though advice is only given by volunteers with rescue experience).

Sarah started volunteering with wildlife as a teenager in the early '90s. She went on to co-found a large wildlife rescue (Wandle Valley Wildlife Hospital which later became London Wildcare after Sarah left) and was the Animal Care Manager there for 6 years. Since then she has volunteered for other rescues and founded the Starlight Trust in 2008. Sarah's physical disability unfortunately means she is no longer well enough to do much 'hands-on' rescuing, so she founded HelpWildlife.co.uk as a way to carry on helping as best she could. As she no longer cares for wildlife (other than pigeons) directly, Sarah does not give out care advice and is always VERY open to feedback from those still on the frontline about the information on the site and how HelpWildlife.co.uk can best support rescues. Please do get in touch with any suggestions via [email protected] 

Head over to the directory site and you'll find the information and links you need here - https://directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/add-a-listing/ 

As a rescue, you are able to ‘claim’ your directory listing, enabling you to edit it any time to ensure it’s up to date. You’ll need to create an account on the directory site first. You'll find guidance on this at directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/rescue-guidance. If you can’t find the information you need there, or you need any extra support, you can email us at [email protected]. 

Most likely this will be because you’re not logged in. Go to directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/login/ to make sure. If you’re still having problems, you can email us on [email protected] 

Most often this is because you’ve not yet registered on the site. The presence of a listing in the directory does not mean there is a user account set up for you personally. You can register at https://directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/register. If you’re certain you’ve registered previously you can visit https://directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/forgot/ for a reminder of your account information. If you’re still having difficulty, email us at [email protected] with the details of the listing you’re trying to edit and we can look up your account information for you.

You can visit https://directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/forgot/ to request a reminder of your account information

In most cases, the simplest way to find your listing is to go to directory.helpwildlife.co.uk, enter a town near you, and you should appear as one of the listed rescues.

Keep in mind there are three tiers to the directory. If your rescue doesn’t appear in the initial search, use the drop-down on the left of the search box to select the ‘Small Rescues’ tier as well. If your listing is on the Community Heroes tier, you won’t be able to view it as listings on this tier are visible only to our volunteers. If you have claimed a listing on the Community Heroes tier, you can check or edit the information on the listing by going to your account page, clicking on the three dot menu and selecting ‘edit’. If you think your listing should be on a different tier, you can find information about their criteria at directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/add-a-listing/ and then email us at [email protected] to discuss.  

This is why we now have three tiers to our directory. The first tier (‘rescues’) is the one visitors will see first when they search and will therefore attract the highest number of contacts. Simply moving your listing to the second tier (‘small rescues’) will dramatically reduce the number of calls you get via this site. Moving your listing to the third tier (‘Community Heroes’) will mean that your listing is no longer visible to the public and the only people contacting you will be those in touch with our helpdesk who have exhausted other options in the area. Get in touch via [email protected] and we’ll be happy to review which tier your listing appears on.

The logo area has a ratio of 4:3 so any images in a different ratio will get cut off. Ideally, upload an image which is, for example, 400×300 or 800×600. If you have a logo in a different shape, you can create a new, blank image in the right ratio and paste your logo onto it. If you’re not sure how to do it, don’t worry, when we check your listing after it has been edited, if we spot that the logo isn’t behaving, we’ll tweak it and re-upload it for you. If we miss one or you need some help, just let us know on [email protected] 

Each listing can be set as 'Temporarily Closed'. This will display a warning message in the search results and a banner on your listing which says that the rescue is closed and why. If you've claimed your listing, you can set it as temporarily closed any time. See directory.helpwildlife.co.uk/rescue-guidance/ for guidance on this. If you haven't claimed your listing (and we strongly encourage you to do so) then you can email us at [email protected] letting us know the reason for closure and when you expect to reopen and we'll be happy to edit the listing for you.

PLEASE let us know! The very last thing we want to do is give people the wrong information. Drop us an email at [email protected] and I promise we will be receptive to your input. If you have any ideas for new articles, we’d love to hear those too. If you would like to write one on your area of expertise, we would be happy to include it in our advice library, giving you/your rescue full credit.

That’s right! In 2023 we launched our £1 for Wildlife campaign. With 300,000 people visiting our site each year, we’d love to have each of them donate £1 to support wildlife rescue. You can read more about this campaign here – helpwildlife.co.uk/1forwildlife/  

To be eligible, a rescue must

• be listed in our public directory (i.e. on the ‘rescues’ or ‘small-rescues’ tier)
• have claimed their listing
• have edited or renewed their listing in the last year

We will choose a rescue meeting these criteria at random each month but may also make some additional, targeted gifts when funds allow. We are not currently accepting requests for donations but we will keep this under review as the campaign matures. Feel free to get in touch via [email protected] if you have any further questions.

Our intention is simply to provide finders of casualties with details of wildlife rescues in their area. On each listing we state that inclusion in the directory is not an endorsement and the finder should take steps to satisfy themselves as to the suitability of the rescue before surrendering an animal to them. With over 700 rescues and rescuers now listed, there's no possible way we could undertake checks on them all. There's more information about this, and details of how to get in touch if you have concerns about a listed rescue, at helpwildlife.co.uk/policies/