🚨 Our team is exhausted – but still giving their all for local wildlife. Can you help give them a boost? 🚨
This summer has been one of the busiest we’ve ever faced. Our tiny but mighty team of staff and volunteers are working around the clock to rescue, care for, and release hundreds of wildlife casualties across East Sussex.
Here’s what it really looks like behind the scenes:
✅ Up to 250 phone calls a day handled by just one (sometimes two!) people – calls that often take 5+ minutes each to give advice, reassure the public, arrange rescue or arrange for photos and videos to be assessed.
✅ Volunteer rescuers driving 300+ miles a day, racing between towns like Eastbourne, Bexhill, Seaford, Lewes, Heathfield, Burgess Hill and more – often having to eat lunch on the go.
✅ Care Team working 8am–9pm (and beyond), making sure every casualty is treated properly – sometimes even taking the youngest or most fragile home overnight.
✅ Veterinary Support increasing, due to the huge demand in cases WRAS is taking on a second veterinary surgeon to help ensure that charity works within the law, and meets all the requirements of a modern ethical charity.
✅ Animal Care Assistants - working 7 days a week, making sure every casualty is fed, cleaned, with shifts taking longer and longer as the centre becomes more full.
✅ Over 450 casualties in care at once, creating a huge workload and “bed blocking” while waiting for wildlife to recover.
Our team is dedicated, compassionate, and determined – but they’re also human. They’re tired, stressed, and sometimes face criticism when we have no choice but to say “no” because space and resources are stretched beyond breaking point.
💚 This is where YOU can help. 💚
We’re asking our amazing local community to send messages of support and encouragement to show our staff and volunteers that their hard work really IS valued. You can use the form below to send a written message or you can make it even more special and send a short video message too. You can choose whether you want your message to be sent shared privately just with staff and volunteers or used publicly - all of these will be circulated too our staff and volunteers and some of these messages will be displayed on our website and social media.
👉 If you can, make a small donation to keep our vital community service running:
Even a few kind words or a £5 donation can make a big difference.
Let’s show the people who work tirelessly to save our wildlife that they’re not alone – that this community has their back.
Thank you for caring. 💚
