Wildlife rescue centres are full!

Wildlife Hospitals and Sanctuaries across East Sussex are full to bursting and struggling to deal with the hundreds of calls-outs which are coming in each week.

"All the main organisations we use are telling us that they are full and one centre is no longer answering it rescue line as it cannot cope with the calls and has no space left. At WRAS our rescue centre is constantly turning over casualties and farming them out to our dedicated volunteers who are doing a marvelous job but we have now dealt with over 500 more incidents than this time last year." said Trevor Weeks, founder of East Sussex WRAS.

East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS), is appealing for help to expand and is looking to raise funds to help cover the additional cost of dealing with these casualties. "It is getting to the point where before long, there will be no organisation left in East Sussex which can take in any casualties" said Tim McKenzie, WRAS’s Casualty Care Manager," we are run off our feet trying to deal with casualties but it is very hard work and we are all working 12-15 hour days as a result."

"I have never know the situation to be so bad in East Sussex, we try our hardest to get ambulances out to the calls which need our help and are now prioritizing calls. We urge members of the public to try and transport casualties to their local veterinary centre if it is safe to do so. We need to concentrate our limited rescources on the incidents that really need our help" said Trevor, " some people as a result are accusing us of not caring but this is not the case, it is simply a case that we cannot be everywhere. If people want our service to continue and deal with this huge increase in work then we need much more support and funding coming in to help cover the costs and expenses of running our service."

WRAS’s Casualty Care Centre at Horsebridge has been a brilliant success and is dealing with hundreds of casualties each month but is frequently full and the volunteers stretched. WRAS is in need of funding to expand and to help cover the additional costs of dealing with the major increase in workload.

"I wish I knew why we were getting so many new calls. I know ducks and swans seem to have had higher than normal number of young including one duck which has had over 17 young! We are getting more road casualties than normal too. There are also a number of fledglings that are being delivered to vets which should not have been picked up in the first place. All fledgling birds leave their nests before they can fly and as a result will spent anything from a couple of days to a week on the ground learning to fly. The parents spread their young around so if a cat or fox finds one it doesn’t automatically find the others. These birds should not be picked up if there are cats or foxes about. If we picked up every bird which was at risk of being caught by a cat we would be bust within a week" said Trevor.

WRAS is deperately in need of a professional fundraiser to help bring in funds and help cope with expansion of the organisation and needs funds to help cover the cost of the veterinary bills and costs of running WRAS. "We have done so well with our unit at Horsebridge and so well with responding to calls this year, especially genuine emergency we are getting ourselves a very good reputation but something will have to give so if the number of casualties continue to raise like this" said Trevor.

"I am full of admiration for all the volunteers which now work for WRAS I am so proud of them and the work that they achieve we just need the publics support to help expand and deal with the volume of work which the public are asking us to deal with. Over half the calls we receive are from people who have been turned away from other centres or been told that the animal will just be put to sleep if they take it in. WRAS is currently treating all wildlife casualties based on the individual needs of each individual animal. " said Trevor Weeks.

To help us continue with your vital work, please consider helping us by volunteering or donating online. You can also send a donation to WRAS’s Treasurer Peter Mortimer at Ash Cottage, 73 Friday Street, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN23 8AY.

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Press Contact: Trevor Weeks, East Sussex WRAS, 07931 523958

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