Photo: Doug Gimesy
Many people want to assist with the rescue of injured wildlife in a direct way. While these offers are appreciated and it’s very encouraging to know that people want to help wildlife in times of tragedy, wildlife rescuers and carers need to be trained and licenced before they are able to do this safely.
Only appropriately trained members are authorised to carry out emergency wildlife rescue and care activities and even they cannot enter fire grounds until they have been declared safe by the agencies in charge.
If you are interested in becoming a wildlife volunteer we encourage you to get in touch with your local volunteer group.
Please remember that becoming a wildlife volunteer requires significant training and investment by the group you join. This investment means there is an expectation that you will continue to volunteer long-term (even if it is just with transport, fundraising, answering phones or preparing food). Consider your ability to commit before joining a group as a member.
Wildlife rescue groups receive hundreds of calls daily to assist individual animals in distress and they actively assist sick, injured and orphaned wildlife 365 days a year. Bushfires and heat stress events are currently adding additional demands to limited resources. If you do contact your local group to join or offer assistance, be aware that they might not be able to get back to you straight away.
The best way to assist our wildlife rescue and care work is to donate money. Community donations support ongoing rescue and care work and enable the best response to emergency events as they occur.
FNPW will be working with Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) across Australia to deliver programs on the ground in bushfire impacted areas.
CVA has been selected to coordinate the national environmental volunteering response to the 2019/20 bushfire crisis. Responding will require efforts at a scale that will only be known once affected areas are declared safe, and damage has been assessed. The sheer scale of the fires, the sensitive nature of many of the areas affected, and the numbers of wildlife that are displaced is enormous. We stand ready to help volunteers to contribute and direct their efforts to recovery actions that will help land, water and wildlife.
CVA is focusing on three key actions to establish and roll out environmental volunteering opportunities in the bushfire recovery process:
1.Establish a central environmental volunteer registration hub
2.Support organisations who need help with environmental volunteering
3.Share opportunities for environmental volunteering
Volunteers can register their interest in participating in bushfire recovery projects and receive regular updates on environmental volunteering opportunities. CVA will communicate with the volunteers and organisations who register via an email newsletter, sharing environmental volunteering opportunities in the regions they are interested in.
Register your interest in volunteering.
Vets Beyond Borders is an animal charity which deploys volunteer vets, vet nurses and other animal welfare workers to help improve the lives of animals and developing communities around the world.
Email: admin@vetsbeyondborders.org
This Facebook group offers patterns for knitting and sewing items for animal rescue services. You can post your finished items to the group, who will then distribute them to animal organisations and shelters that need them. If you want to offer your help creating items, start with this post.
Make sure you check to see what is needed before you start sewing. Many items (such as koala mittens) are no longer needed thanks to a large number of kind donations.
Find out more about your buddies
www.facebook.com/backyardbuddies
SIGN UP: Each month you can receive B-mail about animals you’re likely to see in your backyard with tips on how to make your backyard friendly for them.
