A WILDLIFE rescuer has said the number of calls his charity receives is reducing him to tears.

Trevor Weeks runs East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service from its base at Whitesmith on the A22 near Halland.

He spoke out after our story about Roger and Fleur Musselle of Roger’s Wildlife Rescue at Woodingdean who are struggling with the volume of calls.

Mr Weeks said East Sussex WRAS is equally busy.

He said: “We are facing the same challenges and criticism of not answering calls and not attending quickly enough. Most hurtfully, we have even been accused of not caring.

“I am amazed at how people like Roger and Fleur cope and how they have not had a mental or physical break down.

“The general public genuinely do not realise quite how much work is done by people like them and our team at WRAS, Folly Wildlife Rescue, Bexhill Wildlife Rescue, the Bat Hospital, Bird Aid, National Fox Welfare, and many other individuals who frequently work extremely long days in East Sussex.”

Mr Weeks said he and his team are working 15 to 20 hour days at the moment.

He said: “Some mornings it is really difficult to get out of bed and the workload can reduce you to tears at times.

“You struggle to string a sentence together due to tiredness.

“There are thousands of wild animals which would be left to suffer if it wasn’t for people like Roger and Fleur and they don’t deserve to have people being rude, aggressive and criticising them when they are working so hard.

“None of us is super human. We need sleep, we need time to eat.

“They are not the cause of the workload, society is, but society frequently looks down on wildlife rescue organisation.

“We frequently miss out on funding because we apparently don’t benefit society and we are ‘only caring for animals’ despite being called out by the public, police, councils, vets and more on a daily basis.”

Mr Weeks is urging people to get behind their local wildlife rescue.

He said: “Whoever they are thank them and support them,.

“It might be WRAS, Roger’s Wildlife Rescue, Folly Wildlife Rescue or Bexhill and Hastings Wildlife Rescue or even the RSPCA.

“They are also very overworked and struggle to cope at this time of year.”