Found an injured or orphaned wild animal?
How to Find a Wildlife Rehabilitator
Savage Hart is located in Columbus, Georgia. We are available to assist Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Please call or text the wildlife hotline at (888) 444 – 1810. If it is after hours, please leave a message, and we will return your call ASAP.
- For wildlife found in Georgia, please contact a permitted wildlife rehabilitator.
- As a Georgia-based rehabilitation facility, we cannot accept mammals from across state lines. Please refer to this list of Alabama licensed wildlife rehabbers who may be able to help.
- If you have an animal emergency but don’t know of licensed rehabilitators, Animal Help Now is an excellent resource for quickly connecting with individuals and organizations capable of providing professional care to wildlife in need.
Important information
- Please never touch a wild animal with bare hands.
- Don’t feed the wildlife on your own! The sooner you can get a sick/injured/orphaned animal into care, the better its chances of survival!
- DO NOT handle rabies vector species (bats, skunks, foxes, raccoons, coyotes) without personal protection equipment, even if there’s no reason to believe the animal carries the virus. There’s a reason we give the advice we do when contacted about rabies vector species, and it’s for the sake of animals and humans alike. Failure to adhere to that advice more often than not, results in the needless death of innocent wildlife.
- It is illegal to rehabilitate wildlife without a permit.
What animals do we accept?
Savage Hart is permitted to accept Georgia native small mammals (rabbits, opossums, squirrels, etc.) and reptiles (turtles) for rehabilitation. Other animals may be accepted on a case-by-case basis for triage and transport.
We do not have a federal USFWS permit to rehabilitate birds, and by law can have birds in our possession for only 24 hrs before they must be transferred to a licensed rehabilitator or re-nested. Our partnership with the Southeastern Raptor Center allows us to field calls concerning raptors; if orphaned raptors cannot be re-nested, or if we receive injured raptors, we always have a licensed facility to transfer them to.