Sam Collins, our wildlife hero: RVN by day, wildlife carer by night

Sam Collins
RVN
Aireworth Vets

The context

There is no one case, there are too many: Sam is our go to person if we have wildlife brought in to the practice. She takes on day old chicks that have been brought in by a well meaning member of the public after they have fallen out of the nest and nurses them until they are able to look after themselves, losing much sleep in the process! Sadly, they may not survive and after a few days they may succumb to their poor start but Sam does not despair, she tries again with the next one! She takes on all manner of types of wildlife and feeds and looks after them, all at a cost to herself financially and emotionally. This is all as a single mum of five. She can often be found carrying around wildlife in a cat carrier to maintain their nursing care!

The action

Sam funds her wildlife care herself, despite being a single mum of five and she never complains or says no to an animal that she thinks she can help. She goes without sleep to feed young animals and she gives up an awful lot of her time to look after wildlife that has been brought into the practice. It can be heartbreaking to her when she has been looking after an animal for a few days or so and then it dies because it just wasn’t meant to be but this doesn’t stop her from saying yes to taking the next wildlife casualty and trying to help that one instead. She just wants to try to rehabilitate and many animal as possible and see them released back into the wild where they belong.

The ripple effect

Sam’s dedication to wildlife gives us hope as a team that we can help more animals and it gives everyone a lift to see one of her patients being released back into the wild. She passes on her knowledge to the rest of the team so that we can all learn from her and we can all try to provide the best care possible to wildlife that comes in through our doors. Her dedication truly deserves to be rewarded publicly.

Voting opens 13 November.