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, and newsletter subscriber data.
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?
For those explicitly subscribed to our newsletter, we collect information about how you interact with it (newsletter views and links therein clicked with IP address and user agent). Other than that, 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). We do not add any contacts, e.g. from rescues, to our newsletter unless you explicitly subscribe via our website.
How long do we keep it for?
We keep personal data, including newsletter engagement 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. For newsletter subscribers, we delete your personal information promptly when you unsubscribe, keeping only a minimal record of your email address to honour your request not to be contacted again.
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, other than as described in this policy, 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 may share short excerpts of emails you send us, with your first name and the general area where you found an animal, with bodies such as Ireland’s Charity Regulator or funders in support of applications and reporting. We remove all other personal details (such as surnames, addresses, phone numbers, and any information about other people) before doing so. We rely on our legitimate interests in demonstrating the impact and public support for our work. You can object to this at any time by emailing privacy@wildliferescuecork.com, and we will not use your message in this way. If you object and an excerpt has already been submitted we will ask the recipient to remove it, and they will handle it under their own privacy policies. We do not publish these excerpts (for example on our website or social media) or use them in public appeals without your explicit consent.
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 Data Protection Commission 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.
Our newsletter subscribers can unsubscribe at any time using the link in each newsletter or by emailing privacy@wildliferescuecork.com. Subscribing is based on your consent, and you can withdraw it whenever you like, which will not affect anything we did before you withdrew. By subscribing, you consent to us sending you the newsletter and recording whether you open it and which links you click. When you unsubscribe, we stop sending you the newsletter and stop collecting engagement information about you.
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.
2. “Usage Data”: If you’re subscribed to our newsletter, we also collect information about how you interact with it. This counts as personal data and is handled under this policy.
Purposes for which we hold your Information
We will process any personal data you provide to us via the web form or direct contacts, and that we collect when you interact with our newsletter (if subscribed), for the following purposes:
Legitimate Interests
Our legitimate interests are rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife, running the charity effectively, and demonstrating our impact. You have the right to object to processing on this basis (see below).
(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 assess volunteer applications and coordinate volunteers
(f) to assist in the collection of donated goods
(g) to aid in conservation efforts
(h) to process and acknowledge donations
(i) to share short excerpts of messages you send us (with personal details removed, other than your first name and the general area an animal was found) with regulators, funders, and similar bodies, as evidence of public support for, and the quality of, our work
Legal Obligation
(j) to fulfil our reporting obligations to governing bodies
Contract
(k) to process shop orders and event registrations
Consent
(l) to send newsletters to those who have subscribed, and to understand how they engage with them
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, to complete the rescue and re-release of an animal, or as described in “Do we share your data?” regarding short email excerpts with most personal details removed. 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. Newsletter subscriber and engagement data is never shared outside of WRC.
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 October 2026.