According to Animal Welfare, in 2020, wildlife carers worked an average of 32 unpaid hours a week, with their personal financial outlay over a lifetime estimated to be $800,000.

The federal government announced a pledge of $1 billion in mental health funding this week, but there is no provision for wildlife carers.

WildTalk chief executive Frances Charleston says 95 per cent of wildlife rehabilitators who quit do so due to personal issues and mental health problems.

She says she has a particular memory of rescuing a brown snake caught under a water meter cover, the snake suffered a cut across its stomach, meaning the snake could not properly shed.

“We did the rescue, I took him home and cared for him. I would go in and check on him, to make sure that he could shed and have poo because that was the two things he needed to, otherwise he could die as the snake would bloat and die from toxic emissions inside the body,” she says.

Mrs Charleston says when she was studying in university, her lecturer warned her she will find herself needing support one day.

“Three months after I released him, I was driving over a hill which looks onto the hill where I had released him and they had driven a road a new road cutting right through the middle of where I’ve released him. I went and pulled the car over and cried for half an hour, and when I had brought myself to and got myself back into a position where I was able to drive and function, I got thinking about if that’s how I responded to an animal that I had rescued and cared for.” she says.

She says even though her experience helped her to start Wild Talk, there needs to be some government funding so a hotline can be used to support Wildlife rehabilitators to talk to someone who understands them.

Wildlife rehabilitator Tessa Esparon is the owner of Tessa’s Reptile Services in Perth. She started catching snakes for friends, before moving to all reptiles, and found her business growing.

“I wanted to give a fair representation on how snakes actually behave, so that people would see how I do my job and then they would say it’s not that scary, and they hopefully use more snake catchers in the future instead of shovelling snakes,” she says.

Ms Esparon says she funds all of her rehabilitation work herself, and struggles to afford supporting the animals.

“The government doesn’t seem to care because there’s no money in wildlife, so they don’t fund wildlife carers at all. They don’t pay us a cent.”

Ms Esparon says her job takes away time she spends with her family because of how much demand there is.

“I went from doing it from 10 to 20 hours a week to it literally was like a 40-to-50 hour job, and I get calls from six in the morning to one o clock at night and there’s no break,” she says.

Curtin University environmental science Professor Stephen Van Leeuwen specialises in native wildlife rehabilitation. He says it’s easy for people to get attached to animals.

“In lots of cases the animals aren’t as domesticated or as passive and placid, but people still get attached to them because they’re companions and they give them a sense of place and relaxation,” he says.

“Black cockatoos can live up to 40 or 50 years. It’s a significant investment of time and effort, but also it impacts on your ability to do other things. You can’t just, decide we’re going away to somewhere overseas for a holiday unless you’ve got someone who can look after those animals.”