Update: Continuing to help Australia's wildlife recover
Early this year, bushfires led to mass devastation across Australia, leaving over a billion animals killed or suffering immensely. Thanks to your support, we continue to help these animals recover and get a new lease on life
While the media attention has mostly moved on from the Australian bushfires, our work continues.
Hunter Wildlife Rescue was one of the local wildlife groups we supported with emergency food and equipment, including a shipping container to store the food needed for the animals in their care.
Audrey Koosman, President of Hunter Wildlife Rescue, says: "Hunter Wildlife Rescue is so grateful to World Animal Protection for the wonderful help and support. Through this support we are able to give our carers so much help and provide better care to our beloved native fauna."
Meet the animals you helped
Floyd, Noni and Talia are kangaroos they cared for that were released on April 13 after being treated for burns.
Image: Hunter Wildlife Rescue
Pearl, the brushtail possum, is still in care. Her mum was killed in the fires, but Pearl survived and is doing well. She is being reared on milk donated by us and other organisations.
Image: Hunter Wildlife Rescue
We also supplied food and materials to help Native Animal Rescue Group (NARG) care for rescued animals and rebuild after the fires.
Meet Ash (pictured left) and her unnamed best friend (right) a baby brushtail possum.
She was rescued by NARG after her mum was killed in the recent bushfires. At the time of her rescue she weighed just 136g, but thanks to her carer Miriam, Ash now weights 236g! While she isn’t eating solids just yet, Ash recently escaped her pouch and snuck a taste of a date and loved it.
Image: Native Animal Rescue Group
Long-term recovery continues
With the recent bushfire emergency killing more than one billion animals, the vulnerability of Australian native wildlife and their habitats has been highlighted like never before. However, the damage caused by the fires is only one challenge. Widespread land clearing and habitat destruction represent a huge, ongoing threat to Australian animals.
Strong environmental laws are critical to the survival of Australian animals. Without robust environmental laws, vital natural habitats will continue to be lost or damaged, vulnerable animal and plant species will become extinct at an increasing rate, and Australia’s unique biodiversity will be put at grave risk.
Our colleagues at World Animal Protection Australia organized a petition to urge the Environment Minister, Sussan Ley, to improve animal protection in the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
The EPBC Act is meant to provide a framework for protecting the Australian environment. It also provides for the issuing of approvals for a variety of activities on Commonwealth land including land clearing, farming, mining and development. But it’s not working. Almost all projects (99.7%) assessed by the Australian federal government get rubber-stamped.
11,765 supporters stood side by side with animals by adding their names to our submission to strengthen the environmental protection laws.
For more than half a century, we’ve helped millions of pets, farm animals, and wild animals in 270 disaster responses in over 80 different countries, including in the Amazon, Southern Africa, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines and Haiti. And we'll continue pushing to protect vulnerable animals in Australia now and in the future.
