Wildlife rescue in NSW is carried on the backs of volunteers. Carers take the midnight calls, absorb the trauma, fund fuel and feed, learn complex rehabilitation skills, and make life-and-death decisions under pressure — usually while juggling work and family.

A wildlife carer who was convicted of animal cruelty for nursing an injured kangaroo was “treated unfairly”, and her case raises a “grey area” about the role of all volunteers in the animal rescue sector, a court has heard.

Dods, who cared for hundreds of injured kangaroos as a WIRES volunteer for five years, said she was “stunned” to receive a conviction of animal cruelty and “a bit overcome with how the law works”.

“I doubt very much that anyone becomes a WIRES volunteer without the best of intentions but taking on the care of an animal carries great responsibility,” Robinson said.

Up to 80 per cent of koalas were lost from some areas during the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, and the harrowing footage so tugged at heartstrings around the world that WIRES collected $102.5 million in donations to care for burnt and injured animals.

But sudden wealth can sour good intentions.