Animal care and control organizations rarely do have the resources and capacity to respond to all wildlife calls. Educating and empowering the community on dealing with wildlife is one way to resolve these conflicts efficiently without the need for physical intervention. This webinar provides tips on how to leverage the community in helping animal control and wildlife professionals to effectively address conflicts with urban wildlife.
This session’s instructor is Lynsey White, the Director of Humane Wildlife Conflict Resolution for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). In her role, she helps communities around the US to implement humane and effective solutions to conflicts with urban wildlife. She also leads the HSUS’s Wild Neighbors Program that advocates humane urban wildlife solutions and policies.
On this course, Lynsey will provide guidelines on how to efficiently address wildlife-related calls. Specifics include:
- How phone advising can benefit the animals, the public, and your agency to address the issue in a faster and more effective way.
- The call data sources, and the four top types of wildlife-related calls based on call data.
- Calming down a panicked caller so they can provide better information from which you can deduce your advice from.
- Obtaining important information from the caller should you need to get back in touch with them.
- Being nice to the caller who may seem rude or inconsiderate due to unfamiliarity with the situation they are facing.
- Asking questions, probing and active listening as ways to get good information about the situation, the species that they’re dealing with, and the root cause of the problem.
- Addressing and providing advice based on the information gathered from the call by:
- Highlighting the need to address the root cause of the problem.
- Stressing the implications of inhumane methods of dealing with wildlife.
- Providing the solution to the problem and not just the symptoms.
- Reducing the caller’s fear by educating them about animal behavior, and promoting tolerance to urban wildlife.
- Giving out tailored, concise and simple instructions on how to best address the situation they’re in.
- References that may be used by the call handlers to better inform their callers or relayed to the callers themselves.
- Making referrals to a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator (NWCO) and Wildlife Rehabilitators for cases that you cannot handle at your level.
- Probing techniques to confirm cases of orphaned, injured and sick animals that may require referral.
- The foremost goal of reuniting young with their mothers for better chances of survival.
- Other ways that the HSUS can help animal care and control and wildlife agencies through training, resources, and the Wild Neighbors Pledge.
Points addressed during the Q&A are on:
- HSUS’s exclusion service program.
- Preparing communities for events that may create challenges related to wildlife.
- Instances when animal mothers take on a young of their species that are not necessarily their offspring.
- Utilizing social media platforms to create better wildlife awareness.
- The amount of time that passes before a mother does not come back for their young.
- Trends where agencies refer wildlife calls to the State’s Department of Wildlife.
Handouts and Resources
Audience Comments
- “Learning about the resolution guide and wildneighbors.com reference for the caller to research if they need to or would like to. Thank you for the webinar.” — Kay
- “I thought that the information on calming down panicked people on the phone very helpful.” — Jean
- “Resources were great.” — Jessica
- “I learned valuable ways for preventing animal access.” — Kati
- “HSUS resources very valuable; thanks so much for doing this.” — DAVID
View our Animal Welfare Webinar Schedule and Recordings
This webinar has been certified by the National Animal Care & Control Association and is approved for 1 Continuing Education Unit. Please refer to your NACA membership portal for current CEU submission process. Current NACA Members who attend the live presentation or watch the recording will be able to download a jointly issued attendance certificate that includes the National Animal Care & Control Association logo. Visit the NACA training page for a complete list of future trainings.
