About us
ABOUT
The British Wildlife Cooperative is upcoming community interest company based and operating in Herefordshire, with the eventual long-term goal of spreading across Britian. Our mission statement is this; to create and unite a network of vet practices, wildlife hospitals, rehabilitators, animal transporters and volunteers with one telephone advice service to ensure efficient, accountable and more successful treatment, care and rehabilitation for wildlife
How can it work?
The idea is to create what will essentially work similarly to a ‘999’ service, where members of the public can call this number, and it will direct them to a volunteer call-handler. Depending on the nature of the call, the call handler will direct them to the most appropriate service which has capacity to care for that specific patient, whether that is a wildlife rehabber, or if the animal needs non-routine treatment, a vet practice who is also apart of the BWC network. If the caller cannot transport the patient themselves, we also hope to have a network of animal ambulances on-call who can assist with transport to the most appropriate place. Additionally, we hope to have independent rehabbers for more routine treatment of patients where the outcome looks positive, alleviating the pressure on wildlife hospitals.
We are hoping that not only would this increase the number of successful treatment and releases, as well as reduce suffering, we hope it will levitate the current burn-out and strain on services that help wildlife if we all work cooperatively.
We see this as being a symbiotic enterprise, where wildlife patients get the optimum and accountable treatment, and vet practices, rehabilitators and hospitals are less burnt-out, and more cooperative and collaborative as the work-load is shared, with everyone working to their strengths. Furthermore, it enables local communities to play a role in supporting their local wildlife (in the form of a call handlers or animal ambulance), and it may provide a training opportunity to veterinary professionals to become more confident in the treatment of wildlife.
the story so far
The project is still currently in its infancy stage, but from having in-person meetings with veterinary professionals and wildlife care experts, we are confident in this project’s feasibility. We welcome questions, and constructive criticism so that we can create the best version possible of this service. Please see our updates section on this website, or our social media in ‘contacts’ to keep up to date with what’s happening.
why?
As two veterinary professionals, we have witnessed first-hand the burn-out of many vital wildlife rehabilitators, as well as the strain inefficient communication and treatment of wildlife can put on veterinary practices. Hospitals and individual rescues are inundated and stretched beyond capacity, and many vet practices don’t have staff which are fully confident in treating wildlife. Services are very fractured and non-collaborative, which further exacerbates the issue. We want to change this, by improving communication and creating cooperation between all individuals and services that help wildlife.
who are we?
Elliot Goodwin BVMedSci BVM BVS GPCert(ExAP) GPCert(SAS) MRCVS
Elliot has been a practicing veterinary surgeon since 2014, and is the JVP of Hereford Vets4Pets. He has a certificate in exotic veterinary medicine, and has worked with a variety of species such as mountain lions, gibbons, goldfish, sugar gliders, snakes, as well as your everyday household pets. He has also treated and continues to see numerous British wildlife species each year, such as hedgehogs, bats, passerines, raptors, squirrels, waterfowl, and most notably, last year a very sickly puffin, which had been blown off-course from Pembrokeshire some 100 miles away into a back garden in Hereford. Elliot and the team treated the dubbed ‘Oona’ the puffin and she was later rereleased near Skomer island. Elliot is the creator and director of the British Wildlife Cooperative. He proposed the idea last summer in 2025 of a community interest company, that could potentially reduce fragmentation between services that help wildlife in Herefordshire, in the hopes of making a more robust system of communication and treatment for wildlife and wildlife professionals.
who are we?
Natasha Ballantyne BSc (Hons) VNA
Natasha is a qualified CQ veterinary nursing assistant, and also has a first-class Bachelor’s degree in Ecology. She has worked for Vets4Pets in a variety of roles for seven years as receptionist, administrative assistant, and now as a nursing assistant. She is knowledgeable in ecological concepts and through university, the Field Studies Council, RSPB Youth Council, Wildlife Trust and MARECO, she has studied and worked with a variety of UK species and their habitats. Natasha is the project lead for the British Wildlife Cooperative, and is slowly but surely completing all the administrative, outreach and marketing tasks that are required for setting up such a project.
