Executive summary
The ANZCVS Zoo and Wildlife Chapter is calling on emergency authorities and incident managers to integrate the expertise and skills of wildlife veterinarians in all emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities likely to affect wildlife.
This is necessary to ensure that:
- prevention and preparedness plans consider impacts on wildlife;
- pre-existing relationships with other wildlife responders, including veterinary nurses, rescuers and rehabilitators, are leveraged;
- personnel without wildlife expertise, including other veterinarians, can participate more effectively in a response, enabling local capacity and capability;
- wildlife response guidelines and protocols are species-appropriate, practical, based on available evidence and adhered to;
- decisions are made rapidly, are welfare-oriented and there is ongoing assessment of suitability for release;
- interventions such as capture, handling and translocation are conducted safely and are appropriate for the species and conditions;
- the undomesticated nature of wild animals is accounted for, including the welfare consequences of human proximity and interaction;
- husbandry conditions for animals in care are appropriate;
- the anticipated veterinary-specific ethical, physical and psychological pressures of wildlife emergency response are incorporated into planning;
- there is compliance with animal welfare, biodiversity and veterinary legislation.
Wildlife veterinarians should seek the relevant competencies in incident management awareness and response to enable participation.
The Position Statement can be found here /anzcvs-dev-media/46699/zoo-and-wildlife-chapter-led-position-statement-2024-final.pdf.
