Wildlife Emergency Relief - Vets

The catastrophic fires, drought and extreme weather have decimated millions of hectares of habitat and conservatively impacted over a billion animals. The unprecedented scale of these events has devastated communities, wildlife and the organisations that care for them.

WIRES have been overwhelmed and inspired by the outpouring of global support to immediately assist affected animals and thanks to the incredible generousity of our supporters, WIRES is now able to offer assistance where needed, to all licensed individuals, organisations and vets in the affected areas nationally, starting with the allocation of 3 million dollars for frontline wildlife rescue and care.

NATIONAL SUPPORT AVAILABLE

In the 8 weeks from mid-November to mid-January WIRES has distributed 1 million within NSW across all of WIRES 28 branches encompassing the Mid North Coast, Northern Rivers, Clarence Valley, Central Coast, Central West, Hawesbury, Blue Mountains, Greater Sydney, Illawarra, Wollondilly, Wingecarribee, Weddin-Lachlan, South Coast, Murray River and Riverina. The distrubition of these funds enables local volunteers to respond quickly to local requirements.

An initial 1 million is allocated to support veterinary clinics and wildlife hospitals needing help across Australia and an additional 1 million has been allocated to specifically support vets assisting wildlife impacted by the emergency events.

EMERGENCY ITEMS COVERED for LICENSED RESCUERS, CARERS and VETS

All veterinary clinics and wildlife hospitals in the affected areas nationally are invited to apply for Wildlife Relief Funds to assist with immediate needs they have to assist native animals affected by the emergency events.

The following items may be approved as part of the wildlife emergency relief funding:

1. Covering veterinary costs for wildlife requiring treatment due to the fires, drought or extreme heat events
2. Providing food for wildlife in the clinic’s care due to fires, drought and heat
3. Providing medical supplies and medication for affected wildlife
4. Purchasing essential equipment for the assessment or treatment of sick, injured or orphaned wildlife
5. Providing additional resources to assist with the treatment of wildlife affected by the bush fires

Veterinary Clinics and Wildlife Hospitals assisting impacted animals can request up to $10,000. However, if there are additional requirements you would like to discuss please email the details to wildlifesupport@wires.org.au.

Due to the immediate nature of this crisis, all successful applicants will be expected to have completed their projects e.g. purchased the requested items and submitted a project summary with photos showing how the funds help affected animals, within 3 months of receiving the funds.

Grants will be issued excluding GST unless you are registered for GST and require GST to be added. If you do, please note that in your application and if successful we will ask you to issue WIRES an invoice including GST for payment.

If you think you:
- might need help in addition, or outside, what is described above OR
- want to check if you are eligible, please email your question to wildlifesupport@wires.org.au.

Please download and complete this application document and email to wildlifesupport@wires.org.au

Please note that like everyone we are dealing with issues around the COVID-19 situation and we ask for your patience with regard to processing time of recently submitted applications.