Who are we?
Wildlife Rescue Cork (WRC) is a charity registered in Ireland with Registered Charity Number 20205803. This Privacy Policy applies to all personal data processed by Wildlife Rescue Cork, whether collected through our website, by email, in person, or by any other means.
WRC respects your privacy and we comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to outline how we deal with any personal data you provide to us.
How can you contact us?
At the time of writing, WRC operates from:
Whitechurch, Co. Cork
Email: privacy@wildliferescuecork.com
About Us
WRC was set up in 2017 to rescue and rehabilitate injured or orphaned native wildlife in Cork and surrounding counties, with the sole purpose of releasing them back into the wild once successfully recovered. All our actions are geared towards these goals. We are a small, but growing team run mainly by volunteers.
Mission Statement
WRC operates with compassion, transparency, and respect for both wildlife and the community. We believe in protecting privacy as part of our ethical responsibility to those who support our mission.
Who do we process data about?
We gather names, addresses, and contact numbers from our staff, volunteers, finders, and other supporters, for the purposes of locating, transporting, and re-releasing wildlife in need of our help. Details will also be used to help with conservation efforts, and as part of our legal obligations towards governing bodies.
Where do we get your data from?
The only data collected is what you provide to us when you contact us for an animal in need, apply for a volunteer position, raise and donate funds, or shop with us. If you contact us multiple times, we may combine information from different contacts to ensure we can reach you efficiently (for example, using a phone number from a previous rescue report if you contact us again via email).
How long do we keep it for?
We keep personal data for no longer than is deemed necessary for the purpose. This is typically a maximum of 27 months to allow for conservation analysis, potential re-release follow-ups, and to fulfil our legal reporting obligations. After this time, we only keep a generalised location of animal rescues at most.
Where do we keep your data?
Your data is held mostly within the EU. Some third-party service providers of crowd-source funding and events hold personal data in secure data centres outside the EEA. Where personal data is transferred outside the EEA, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, to protect your information.
Do we share your data?
Within WRC, it is shared only when necessary, and solely for the purposes of completing orders, organising donations, or to complete animal rescues and re-releases. Your data is not shared outside of the rescue organisation whatsoever, and Wildlife Rescue Cork does not engage in the sale of personal information in any manner. We will not use your data for marketing in any way, unless you explicitly consent to this.
We use trusted third-party service providers to process some information securely on our behalf — for example, SumUp for online shop payments, Eventbrite for event registrations and ticketing, GoFundMe, iDonate, and PayPal for donations, and Google and OVHcloud for backend systems and reporting for legal requirements and conservation efforts. These providers act as data processors and handle payment details directly in accordance with their own privacy and data protection policies. Note GoFundMe and PayPal are also independent data controllers for these purposes. We do not have access to, or store, any payment card details ourselves.
We use messaging platforms (such as WhatsApp) to coordinate volunteer responses for animal rescues and goods donations. When you contact us about an injured animal, we may share necessary information (such as your location and contact details) with our volunteer network to arrange collection and care. Volunteers are trained on data protection and only receive the minimum information needed to assist with the rescue.
What are your rights and who should you contact?
Individuals have rights over their personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These rights are not absolute and qualifications and restrictions may apply. In summary your rights are: Right to be informed; Right of access; Right to rectification; Right of erasure; Right to restrict processing; Right to object; Right not to be subject to automated decision making and/or profiling, and the Right to portability. You have the right to seek compensation through the courts or to make a complaint to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner if you believe your data privacy rights have been infringed. WRC is committed to helping individuals exercise their rights.
If you have any questions, or to exercise any of these rights — for example, to request a copy of your data or ask us to delete it — please contact us at privacy@wildliferescuecork.com. We will respond to all valid requests within 30 calendar days. Please note that we may need to retain certain records for legal or administrative purposes, such as reporting obligations, even after a deletion request.
If you have any further queries please contact: privacy@wildliferescuecork.com
Wildlife Rescue Cork Website Privacy Policy
By visiting this website, you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy. Any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such, and we are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of these other sites.
Types of Information Collected
1. “Personal Data”: This is data that identifies you, or can be used to identify or contact you, and may include your name, postal address, email address, and telephone number. Such information is only collected from you if you voluntarily submit it to us, for example, through our email address, or by completing one of our online forms.
Purposes for which we hold your Information
We will process any personal data you provide to us via the web form or direct contacts for the following purposes:
(a) to provide you with information about WRC
(b) to contact you, if required, in connection with your enquiry, or to respond to any communications you might send to us
(c) to assist in the rescue, transport, and/or re-release of an animal
(d) to be able to respond efficiently, if you contact us about multiple animals
(e) to assist in the collection of donated goods
(f) to aid in conservation efforts
(g) to fulfil our reporting obligations to governing bodies;
Any communications submitted online or directly to any of our email addresses and/or volunteers will be subject to the same terms and conditions as those completed by hand in paper form. If any online application forms are included in the site, you will be notified of any additional specific data protection provisions at the time you complete the relevant application form.
Disclosure of Information to Third Parties
We will not disclose your personal data to third parties outside of the rescue unless the disclosure is required in order to process an application or other communication from you, or to complete the rescue and re-release of an animal. We will, however, disclose your personal data if we believe in good faith that we are required to disclose it in order to comply with any applicable law, a summons, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other valid legal process.
Security
Your personal data is held on secure servers hosted by our Internet Service Provider OVHcloud, and within our organisation’s Google Workspace account (Google Drive) for the purposes outlined above. While we take all reasonable steps to protect your information, please note that no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
This Website Privacy Policy is published by WRC and was last updated in January 2026.