Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue

03/09/2026

A huge thank you to everyone who voted for us! We still have a large number of hedgehogs currently in care and this donation will be extremely useful 😍

Thank you!!!

🦔🎉 August Giveaway Winners Announced! 🎉🦔

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate a rescue or charity this month! Your nominations help us get essential, nutritious food directly to the people working on the front lines to care for our prickly friends. 🌿✨

We are so excited to announce our five August winners, who will each be receiving a full Brambles food bundle:

💜 Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue
💜 Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital
💜 Deanshanger Hedgehog Rescue
💜 Pickering Hedgehog Rescue. 077 1701 3723
💜 Secret World Wildlife Rescue

A massive congratulations to all five rescues! Thank you for the incredible work you do every single day. 🦔💚

01/09/2026

🎄 Could you help us bring some exciting OWR events to life? 🦔🦊🦉

Hi everyone! 👋

We’re currently looking for one or two enthusiastic volunteers who would like to get involved with helping us plan and organise some upcoming fundraising and community events for Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue. 💚

One of the ideas we’d really love to bring to life is an OWR Christmas Fayre this year 🎅🎁 — alongside smaller community events, workshops and fundraising activities throughout the year.

We’re looking for someone who might enjoy helping with things such as:

🎄 Planning and organising our Christmas Fayre
💡 Coming up with new fundraising and event ideas
🤝 Connecting with local businesses, stallholders and community groups
📅 Helping coordinate workshops and smaller events
📣 Finding new ways to raise awareness of OWR and the work we do
💚 Helping our events raise vital funds to support sick, injured and orphaned wildlife

This is a voluntary role, and you don’t necessarily need professional events experience. We’d love to hear from someone who is organised, creative, enthusiastic and enjoys bringing people together.

There’s also plenty of opportunity to bring your own ideas to the table — we’d really like whoever gets involved to help shape what OWR’s community events could look like in the future.

Interested in getting involved? 🦔

📧 Please email [email protected] and tell us a little about yourself and why you’d like to help.

Please feel free to share this post too — the perfect person (or people!) might be somewhere in your friends list. 💚

Best wishes

Team OWR 😊

25/08/2026

🦔 WE’RE RECRUITING – WILDLIFE HOSPITAL MANAGER 🦊
📢 An exciting opportunity has become available to join Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue in a key leadership position.

💷 Salary: £31,366 gross per annum
⏰ Hours: 40 hours per week

We are now looking for an experienced, motivated and compassionate individual to take on the role of Wildlife Hospital Manager, helping to lead the day-to-day operation of our busy wildlife casualty and rehabilitation centre.

This is a significant management position within OWR, with responsibility for supporting our staff and volunteers, maintaining high standards of animal welfare, overseeing safe and effective Centre operations, and helping us continue to develop the organisation for the future.

🩺 Animal welfare must always remain at the heart of this role.

We are looking for somebody who can provide confident and supportive leadership while maintaining high professional standards, good communication, accountability and a strong commitment to the welfare of British wildlife.

The successful applicant will play an important part not only in the operation of our current facilities, but also during an incredibly exciting period of development for Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue and the future of our wildlife hospital services.

If you have strong people-management skills, experience within an animal-care, veterinary, wildlife, rescue or similarly demanding operational environment, and believe you have the leadership qualities required to help take OWR forward, we would love to hear from you.

📋 Full job description, person specification and application details:
https://www.oxfordshirewildliferescue.com/paidvacancies

Please feel free to share this post with anyone who you think may be suitable for this important role.

💚 Help us continue building a stronger future for Oxfordshire’s wildlife.

Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue
Registered Charity No. 1194050

20/08/2026

💚 WOW… WE ARE ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY! 🦔📦

Yesterday, we put out an appeal asking for your help as we continue caring for the huge number of hedgehogs currently needing us here at Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue.

What happened next was quite incredible… ❤️

In less than 24 hours, you sent us over £2,600 WORTH OF GOODS from our Amazon Wishlist! 😲📦📦📦

Every box represents something our animals desperately need. Food, cleaning supplies, bedding, and so many of the everyday items that our team gets through at an astonishing rate while caring for such a large number of wildlife casualties.

🦔 For our hedgehogs in particular, your response couldn't have come at a more important time.

With so many currently in our care — including poorly, underweight and orphaned youngsters requiring intensive treatment and rehabilitation — the resources needed to keep them fed, clean, warm and properly cared for are enormous.

Yesterday, we asked for your help.
You answered in the most incredible way. ❤️

To every single person who purchased something from our Wishlist, shared our appeal, donated, commented or helped spread the word…
THANK YOU. 🌿🦔

We still have plenty of work ahead of us, but knowing that so many people are standing behind our little charity means more to our team than we can possibly put into words.

From all of us here at Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue — and from the many little prickly patients currently keeping us extremely busy — thank you so, so much. 💚🦔

What an amazing community we have. ❤️

If you wish to help us with our Amazon wishlist, and help us care for over 153 hedgehogs we currently have here with us please find the link below 👇

🛒. https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2BM129CS8GEZ9?ref_=wl_share

19/08/2026

🦔 153 HEDGEHOGS CURRENTLY IN OUR CARE! 🦔

Yes… you read that correctly. 153 hedgehogs! 😲💚

Our wildlife rescue centre is currently caring for an incredible 153 hedgehogs, making them one of the biggest groups of patients our team is looking after right now.

Many of these admissions have been young hoglets found wandering during daylight hours, alone, vulnerable, hungry and dehydrated.

Hedgehogs are naturally nocturnal, so seeing one out during the day can be an indication that something just simply isn’t right — particularly when it is a very young hoglet on its own.

In the wild, hoglets (baby hedgehogs) remain dependent on their mother for around 6–8 weeks. They spend their first few weeks safely in the nest before gradually beginning to venture outside and learn how to forage alongside her. Eventually, they become independent and head off to begin life on their own. 🦔🌿

Sadly, many of the youngsters arriving with us have had to begin that journey far too soon.

A large number arrived dehydrated, underweight, hungry and in poor general overall condition, but thanks to the dedication of our incredible volunteers and staff, we have managed to pull the majority of them through. ❤️

Seeing them eating, gaining weight and becoming stronger every day is an amazing result — but caring for 153 hungry hedgehogs also means we are getting through an enormous amount of food, bedding and other essential supplies.

🚨 And we are beginning to run low.

We urgently need a little help from our wonderful supporters.

We have updated our Amazon Wishlist with some of the items we currently need most. If you are able to purchase even one item, it will go directly towards helping us feed, care for and rehabilitate the hedgehogs currently staying with us.

🛒 Our Amazon Wishlist can be found here:
👉 https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2BM129CS8GEZ9?ref_=wl_share

Every tin of food, bag of supplies and donated item makes a genuine difference when we are caring for this many animals at once.

As always, thank you for standing behind our little charity and helping us continue to be there for wildlife when they need us most. 💚🦔

Please share this post too — even if you’re unable to donate, sharing our appeal could help it reach someone who can. ❤️

18/08/2026

💔 A heartbreaking call-out for our wildlife ambulance today…

Sadly, this was just one of several calls our team received today involving injured deer.

This young Roe deer — biologically known as a kid, although fawn is also commonly used — had darted into the road and was struck by an oncoming vehicle.

Thankfully, the driver stopped and contacted OWR immediately, allowing our wildlife ambulance team to attend and assess her as quickly as possible.

Tragically, her injuries were catastrophic. She had sustained comminuted fractures — where the bone is broken into multiple pieces — to her hind legs, alongside a spinal fracture and severe head trauma.

There was sadly no possibility of recovery, and she was experiencing significant pain and distress.

Our experienced team therefore made the difficult but necessary decision to humanely euthanise her, bringing her suffering to an immediate end. 💔

It is never the outcome we want.

Our aim will always be to treat, rehabilitate and return wildlife to the wild whenever there is a realistic chance of recovery. But equally important is recognising when an animal has suffered injuries from which it simply cannot recover.

In those situations, preventing further pain and suffering is one of the most important responsibilities we have as a wildlife rescue organisation.

❤️ We would also like to thank the gentleman involved for doing exactly the right thing.

Understandably, he was extremely upset by what had happened and remained with the deer until our team arrived.

Wild animals can behave unpredictably, and sometimes collisions simply cannot be avoided. What matters enormously is what happens afterwards.

He stopped.
He called for help.
He stayed with the animal.

And because he did, this deer was not left suffering alone at the roadside for any longer than necessary.

Sadly, not every injured deer is reported. Some are left badly injured for hours because a driver continues their journey without contacting anyone.

Please — if you hit, witness a collision with, or find an injured deer:

🦌 Stop somewhere safe — never put yourself or other road users in danger.

📍 Record the exact location. A What3Words location can be extremely helpful when directing a rescue team to an animal.

📞 Contact your nearest wildlife rescue organisation as soon as possible.

🚓 If the deer is on or immediately beside a carriageway and presents a danger to traffic, contact the police as well.

You may not always be able to prevent a collision with a wild animal.

But you can control what you do afterwards.

That one phone call could mean the difference between an animal being left frightened and in severe pain for hours… or receiving the urgent help it needs.

Please share this post to help spread awareness. You never know who may find themselves in this situation in the future. 🦌💚

16/08/2026

🌿 HELP US SHAPE THE FUTURE OF OXFORDSHIRE WILDLIFE RESCUE 🦔🦉🦊

As Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue continues to grow, so does our ambition to provide the very best care for the wildlife that needs us.

We are now looking to expand our Board of Trustees and are seeking passionate, committed individuals who would like to use their skills, experience and enthusiasm to help shape the future of our charity. 💚

Our trustees play a vital role in helping guide OWR, providing good governance, strategic direction and support as we continue to develop our work — including our exciting plans for a dedicated new wildlife hospital.

We'd particularly love to hear from people with experience or knowledge in areas such as:

🐾 Charity governance & leadership
💷 Finance & fundraising
⚖️ Legal, HR or compliance
🏗️ Property, construction or project management
💼 Business development & strategy
🌳 Wildlife, conservation or animal welfare

Most importantly, we're looking for people who share our passion for protecting Oxfordshire's wildlife and want to make a genuine difference.

This is an exciting time to become part of OWR. With thousands of animals coming through our doors each year and ambitious plans for the future, joining our Board means having the opportunity to help shape what comes next. 💚

If you think you could bring something valuable to our Board — or know someone who could — we'd love to hear from you.

📩 Interested in becoming a trustee?
Please get in touch with us via the link below:
https://www.oxfordshirewildliferescue.com/about-1

Together, we can give Oxfordshire's wildlife the future it deserves. 🦔🦉🌿

06/08/2026

More ducklings heading back off to the wild having been reared here at OWR 😍 Thank you to everyone for your support, it's because of you and the team of fantastic volunteers that this work can be achieved ❤️❤️

04/08/2026

🦉 From tiny fluff balls to beautiful young tawny owls! 🦉

This year has been an exceptionally busy one for tawny owlets, with many needing an extra helping hand for a wide range of reasons.

Some arrived emaciated or severely dehydrated, while others were suffering from injuries or heavy parasite burdens. Thankfully, with specialist treatment, nutritious food and plenty of dedicated care, many of these adorable little fluff balls have now grown into strong and healthy young tawny owls. 💚

They will soon be ready to begin the next stage of their journey back to the wild through a carefully managed soft-release programme.

A soft release allows a wild animal or bird to adjust gradually to its new surroundings. The youngsters are placed in a secure temporary enclosure at a suitable release site, where they can become familiar with the area before being given their freedom. Support feeding is then continued while they find their feet and fend for themselves.

Once they are confident, independent and ready, these beautiful young owls will disperse to find territories of their own. At that point, our work will finally be complete — and their new lives in the wild can truly begin. 🥹🦉

None of this would be possible without your generous donations and the incredible dedication of our volunteers, who have worked tirelessly to give these owls the second chances they deserve.

We are currently in desperate need of several essential items at the wildlife rescue centre. Please consider supporting our work by purchasing something from our Amazon Wishlist using the link below.

Every item donated helps us continue caring for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. Thank you, as always, for standing beside us. ❤️

🔗 Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2BM129CS8GEZ9?ref_=wl_share