NEWS RELEASE
WILDLIFE CHARITY INUNDATED WITH FOXY PATIENTS
A Leatherhead wildlife hospital has been inundated with new patients and has had to rush to build new animal pens to accommodate the numerous newcomers. Staff and volunteers at the Wildlife Aid Foundation, which has its animal hospital in Randalls Road on the outskirts of Leatherhead, are struggling to cope with their largest ever intake of wildlife patients.
The charity’s founder Simon Cowell MBE said: “We have been literally swamped with new patients in the past fortnight, particularly foxes. Normally we’d have taken in about half a dozen injured and orphaned fox cubs at this time of year, but it’s the middle of April and we’re up to 32 fox cubs already – and there are more coming in every day. It seems to be that this is partly because more people are aware that we’ve got a wildlife hospital here – perhaps they have seen us on the TV series Wildlife SOS – and so they are bringing in sick, injured or orphaned fox cubs to us, or calling us and alerting us to the presence of what appear to be parentless fox cubs in their area.
“Luckily we had already started a project to build some new orphan pens, in anticipation of a ‘silly season’ rush, but the sheer numbers of new patients – not just foxes but other young animals and birds too – has far exceeded our expectations. So we have had to embark on a frenetic programme of building, to make sure that we can get a whole lot of new animal enclosures up and operational over the next couple of weeks. Judging by the numbers of animals coming in at the moment we will very soon have to take in and care for many thousands of newly orphaned wild animals – before releasing them back into the wild later this year, when they are ready and able to fend for themselves.
“All of this costs money, of course, and the total bill for our latest building and caging programme is estimated to be around £25,000, let alone the costs of all the medicines, animal food and various items of equipment that we need for the hospital. So, if there are any generous and public-spirited businesses out there – or wealthy members of the local community, for that matter – who would be willing to help us financially, we would certainly be immensely grateful and would be very happy indeed to give public recognition for that help. We’ve got our annual Open Day coming up on June 19, Father’s Day, and would love to be able to inaugurate the new facilities then and hold a special opening ceremony for the occasion.”
If you are able to help the charity to meet these costs, please let Simon know on 07836 635269 or email him at simon@wildlifeaid.org.uk. If you see any fox cubs in your area that appear to be without their mother, don’t pick them up – instead please call the Wildlife Aid helpline number – 09061 800132 – for advice on what to do.
As two of the Founders of CAFH, we visited Wildlife Aid a couple of days ago and saw that the intensive care facility was full to capacity with injured wildlife patients. We saw little orphaned fox cubs, baby birds and other wildlife being fed and cared for by the dedicated staff of the rescue centre.
We also had another chat with Simon Cowell MBE, the Founder of Wildlife Aid and the star of the long running popular Wildlife SOS television series.We both agreed that it is important for schools to educate future generations to respect and care for their local wildlife and global animal welfare issues. We also discussed how necessary it is for our politicians to support the Hunting Act 2004 which bans the cruel minority sport of chasing and attacking wild animals with dogs. This illegal activity has no place in the 21st century and conflicts with the holistic view of handling and treating wild animals with respect and consideration for their general welfare.
Keep up the great work guys at Wildlife Aid as we know how busy you are particuarly during the orphan season right now.
