Rescuers called to record numbers of injured animals (From The Argus)

Rescuers called to record numbers of injured animals

5:28am Saturday 7th June 2008 in News By Roz Tappenden

Wildlife rescuers say they have been stretched to the limit with record numbers of calls.

The East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) was called 69 times in just 48 hours last week to help 76 wild animals and birds.

At one time the WRAS had eight rescuers on the road helping everything from an orphaned dormouse in Newhaven to four cygnets tangled in string in Pevensey Bay.

Charity founder Trevor Weeks said: "This has been an amazingly busy period for our rescuers. Our casualty care manager Tim McKenzie has been answering the phone and in addition to our usual rescuers we have thrown a number of our new rescuers in at the deep end to help cover this busy period."

Several of the animals were road casualties and many callers were worried about baby birds that had fallen from their nests.

A swan at Egerton Park, Bexhill, which was attacked by a dog did not survive and several birds had been attacked by pet cats.

Most of the injured or sick animals are cared for by specialist vets and a rehabilitated before being returned to the wild.

Mr Weeks said: "WRAS is getting a really good reputation because of the speed in which it deals with emergency incidents but the cost of running our service is increasing because we now keep hold of casualties and deal with much more rehabilitation, plus there's the massive increase in fuel costs.

"We are also getting a good reputation as we give casualties a try, and will evaluate them after 24 hours of emergency veterinary treatment. We are pulling animals through which previously vets said would not survive.

"We find some people are now calling WRAS as they know we will help and not put animals down unnecessarily.

"One sanctuary in East Sussex even puts foxes to sleep when they have more than 10% mange coverage. WRAS has successfully treated and released foxes which have had over 60% mange coverage and monitored the for their survival after release too."

Mr McKenzie said: "We have a good working relationship with specialist organisations and veterinary consultants like Alan Jones, the specialist Avian vet, and the specialist veterinary staff at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Buckinghamshire and the Swan Sanctuary in Shepperton, Middlesex too, we as WRAS changes from being just an ambulance service to a full ambulance and rehabilitation service we are trying to ensure we give the casualties which we deal with the best possible chance of survival once released this does however cost money and we do need companies to sponsor our work and people to help us by donating."

The charity is always looking for more donations and volunteers. Please send donations to WRAS Treasurer Peter Mortimer, Ash Cottage, 73 Friday Street, Eastbourne, BN23 8AY.