Volunteers needed at new Casualty Care Centre

A new Casualty Care Centre is now up and running at Whitesmith just off the A22 between Hailsham and Uckfield. East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service has opened the new Centre after having to close its old unit at Horsebridge due to rising veterinary costs and because of having no room to expand.

East Sussex WRAS is also now taking on a locum vet to work part time to oversee the casualty care at our new. "Veterinary Surgeon Simon Harris who has already helped WRAS with numerous wildlife casualties will be visiting our new unit on a regular basis to help with the prescription of medication and assessment of casualties" said WRAS Casualty Care Manager Tim McKenzie. WRAS will continue to use various other veterinary practices across the county.

"Although the new unit is not fully up and running and the unit is currently smaller than the old unit, there is the room for potential expansion in the long term, this is an exciting time for WRAS," said founder Trevor Weeks.

WRAS is in need of volunteers to help with the feeding and cleaning of casualties at the new centre which involves working about 2 hours once a week either in the morning or early evening to feed, clean and water the casualties. "We had a lot of very good and dedicated volunteers back at Horsebridge who are unable to follow us to the new unit and these volunteers will be sadly missed. Luckily a number of our volunteers are still available and will continue to help out, but we need more people to help" said Trevor.

WRAS is appealing for volunteers from Lewes, Ringmer, Uckfield, Hailsham and all the surrounding villages to help out if they can. Any one interested in helping out should contact Tim McKenzie on 07969-464052 for more information.

"With the recession WRAS has seen a decrease in donations over the past few months but our collection at Newhaven last week was a great success raising over £600 for WRAS. We have had to limit what we respond to as a result of our finances becoming low, but we are still trying to respond to as much as we can, and our volunteer rescuers and carers are donating a lot of their own resources and funds to help keep WRAS ticking along in these hard times. The recession is not going to disapear over night so WRAS is having to look more long term with finances and where money is being spent, but the good news is that we are managing to tick along now, but with the help of our supporters we hope we can eventually expand our services again and be stronger for it" said Trevor.

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Press Contacts: Trevor Weeks, East Sussex WRAS, 07931 523958
Tim McKenzie, East Sussex WRAS, 07969 464052

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