I co-founded Gower Bird Hospital, which became a registered charity in 1996 after the Sea Empress oil disaster.

An electronic service and computer network engineer by trade, I have combined my technical skills with wildlife rehabilitation by installing a Closed Circuit Television system in all aviaries at the hospital. This enables us to observe patients without disturbing them - vital for accurate assessment of physical and mental condition. I also radio-track released patients. I am Gower Bird Hospital's project manager, supervising students from Swansea University using the Hospital's technical facilities to carry out projects, studying pre- and post- release behaviour and survival. As well as improving standards of care and rehabilitation for wildlife casualties, I am very keen on promoting wildlife rehabilitation centres as a resource for scientific research and disease surveillance.

I have assisted my parents in small-scale wild raptor rehabilitation since childhood, and have also worked as a volunteer at Lower Moss Wood Wildlife Hospital and Gentleshaw Wildlife Centre. After graduating with a BSc in Animal Science in 1995, I spent seven years teaching Animal Care (Further Education level) and Animal Behaviour & Welfare (Higher Education level) programmes. This included four years of teaching Wildlife Rehabilitation to students of the National Diploma in Animal Management at Reaseheath College, in collaboration with Lower Moss Wood. Whilst working at Reaseheath, I completed an HND in Countryside Management, and have spoken about Wildlife Rehabilitation in Education at the 2003 and 2006 Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition Annual Symposia.

I am currently taking a career break to care for my two young daughters, but am an active member of the BWRC, currently focused on the development of wildlife rehabilitation teaching materials to support the BTEC National Diploma - see my teaching & training pages.

Kay Bullen

I qualified as a veterinary nurse in the early 1970s, but now spend most of my time working in the field of hedgehog rescue & rehabilitation on a charitable basis. I am a Trustee of both Hedgehog Helpline, a charity I founded in the 1990s, and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society. As well as nearly 20 years of broad, hands-on experience with hedgehog rehabilitation, I was actively involved in the Uist hedgehog rescue, spending many weeks on the Outer Hebrides in 2003-05.

Whilst I am no longer able to take in hedgehogs myself, I am still able to pass on advice to anyone who has a hedgehog in need of care, or is considering becoming a hedgehog rehabilitator. I joined the BWRC Steering Committee in the early 1990s.

John Chitty BVetMed CertZooMed MRCVS (Chairman)
Principal, Strathmore Veterinary Clinic, Andover, Hampshire

I graduated from the University of Plymouth in 1994 with an Honours degree in Rural Resource Management. I then signed up as a volunteer with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University and spent much of 1995 surveying for, and radio tracking badgers in Gloucestershire. On the basis of this work, I was then employed by WildCRU as a research assistant and spent the next four years working on a variety of mammal species, including mink and water voles, but the major part of work was a contract with the Highways Agency investigating the effects of roads on otters. This work produced a chapter on otters in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, a paper in the Journal of Applied Ecology and a report for the Highways Agency.

I left WildCRU to join the RSPCA in 2000, where I now work as the Society's Wildlife Rehabilitation Co-ordinator, using my knowledge and skills relating to mammals and their study to develop projects investigating the survival of rehabilitated animals, as well as many other aspects of wild animal welfare. Part of my role requires me to keep abreast of wildlife legislation, especially that related to rehabilitation.

I am also a Council member for The Mammal Society, and have been honorary Secretary since 2002.

I have been involved in some capacity with wildlife rehabilitation since the mid 1970s. I now concentrate my own efforts towards release of casualties and post release monitoring. I'm employed as the Conservation Officer for the Hawk and Owl Trust, which means that I'm directly linked to the conservation of all species in the wild. One of my hobbies is presenting on TV and Radio through which I hope to bring to the BWRC a higher public profile. I was awarded the MBE in 2001 for services to Nature Conservation.

Tim Thomas MBE
RSPCA

I am a Senior Scientific Officer for the RSPCA's wildlife department and the principal representative for the Society on zoo animal issues. From joining the RSPCA wildlife department in late 1980, I have been responsible within the Society's specialist department for supplying information, advice and comment on zoo animal welfare matters.

I have been working in rehabilitation since the 1980s. We set up the Skye Environmental Centre on the Isle of Skye in 1985, and because we were concerned with wildlife it followed that we would want to care for them too. We have always stressed that we are not vets and so we depend on our local vet, and we have been very fortunate with the help we have received here. In 1988, with the outbreak of the Phocine Distemper Virus, we knew that we could be receiving seals and as we had never handled these before I went to Norfolk, where I learnt the basics of seal rearing and treatment. This was also the time when we received our first otter.

In 1993 we set up the International Otter Survival Fund, and since then we have helped with many different projects in relation to otters worldwide. Our wildlife hospital now specialises in rearing and treating otters, although we will take any wildlife casualty. We also provide help and advice for people working in otter rehab abroad. I have also been responsible for organising the WildCare Forum for rehabilitators that has been held in Inverness since 1991, and I became a member of the BWRC Steering Committee in 2004.