Mark, we’ve greeted the new year with aching hearts as we watch our beautiful country burn.

Like so many, I’m reminded of the continuing crisis by the smell of smoke and the haze that hangs in the air. I know many of you, our closest supporters, live in the areas impacted by these devastating fires. And I know that some of you will have lost all that is dear in recent days and weeks. My thoughts and prayers have constantly been with you, and, of course, with the animals who have suffered and perished on an incomprehensible scale.

I’m writing with a critical update, and to let you know that our action plan has been enacted. Our team has been working to ensure that animals receive the help they need, and that the courageous individuals assisting them on the frontline are also provided with relief.

 

Getting vets to the firegrounds

 

Bound for fire devastated Mallacoota and Tallangata, Dr Elaine Ong and Dr Chris Barton, from Vets for Compassion, with medical supplies and drugs to join the local carers.

 

The most critical need at present is getting qualified disaster-response vets on the ground to assist the animal survivors. The best way we can currently support animals is to help make this happen, as soon as possible.

We have been liaising with key organisations who can deploy teams to firegrounds where animals need them. Access is very difficult in most areas, and some continue to be impacted by fires that aren’t yet under control.

Yesterday, we flew specialist wildlife vets from Vets for Compassion to Mallacoota to assist animals and wildlife carers in the region. We are also providing financial support to two other veterinary emergency response teams. The South Australian Veterinary Emergency Management (SAVEM), who have been deployed to Kangaroo Island, where catastrophic fires have had a devastating impact. And, in NSW, to Vets Beyond Borders, who are mobilising vets to firegrounds throughout the state.

We are hoping, through this appeal, to also provide these organisations with two off-road vehicles that they will need to access firegrounds as part of their search-and-rescue operation, which will be ongoing for weeks, if not months.

We are doing everything possible to ensure all animals receive the help they need as soon as possible — whether they are ‘farmed’, wildlife or domestic pets.

You can support these initiatives by donating here.

 

Getting help to wildlife carers

 

 

We want to support the many selfless individuals who have dedicated their lives to caring for our native wildlife. Many of them have either been directly impacted by the fires, or are preparing to be inundated in the coming weeks as survivors are found. There will be a long-term need to support wildlife as their habitat ranges and food sources have been destroyed. Much of this work will be carried out by volunteer carers, and we won’t forget them.

Animals Australia will provide significant funding to the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, to boost their grant program for wildlife groups across the country. This organisation will provide equitable grants to wildlife carers who are affected by the fires and need assistance.

You can support these initiatives by donating here

 

Our CEO, Glenys Oogjes, and I will remain in touch with both state and federal government agencies to ensure that emergency plans are enacted, and that animals are made a priority. We will also work closely with, and financially support, the Australian Veterinary Association as needed — to enable vets and supplies to rapidly reach the firegrounds.

Mark, while this is such a distressing time, everywhere we look we are seeing the very best of humanity — communities supporting each other, opening up their homes and properties, offering anything and everything they have to help others.

And, as thousands have been forced to flee for their lives, we see firefighters running toward the danger — literally into deadly fires. Tragically, some will never return. The bravery, compassion and sacrifice of emergency services workers is unmatched, and we stand with the rest of Australia in extending our deepest gratitude to them.

If you are able to assist our efforts to help animals on the firegrounds, and the humans who are helping them, you can donate here. All of the money raised through this appeal will be immediately channelled into bushfire response initiatives.

My team and I have been overwhelmed by your generosity and support — your emails, phone calls and messages — not just within Australia, but from all around the world. Please know that there are so many others like you who care deeply for the beautiful animals we share this planet with, and that united, as a compassionate collective, we are giving them the very best chance.

Lyn White AM
Animals Australia

https://www.animalsaustralia.org/?ua_s=GG&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj-6PrI_v5gIVh6ztCh0yaQzNEAAYASAAEgInPPD_BwE 

P.S. Our deepest gratitude to those of you who have already donated to support this bushfire crisis — whether through this appeal, or others. I know there have been many of you who have already shown incredible generosity that will help alleviate suffering. We will continue to keep you up to date as the days progress

 

https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/02/nearly-500000000-animals-killed-australias-wildfires-11989639/?ico=pushly-notifcation-small&utm_source=pushly

Reproduced from ‘Metro’, London. To read the full article and see all the photographs, please click on the link above.

 

WAV Comment – We shed no tears, apart from those for the millions of innocent animals that have been obliterated by the wrongdoings of man (called the Australian Government) once again. It is pretty clear from what has happened that PM Scott Morrison and ‘Environment’ Minister Sussan Ley have just sucked up to destructive industry for years whilst failing to listen to the environmentalists. Now they pay the price. These 2 people should have been the first to be destroyed in the flames; idiots who by their ignoramus attitudes are now responsible for obliterating entire species from the face of the planet. They are the government so called ‘environmentalists’ who have provided extinction for species rather than working to protect them. And still they will probably gripe that it has nothing to do with global warming !

In our opinion; it is a kind of ‘Karma’ time by the animals. Fools like Morrison have supported the live export industry; now the animals have gone, been destroyed and hopefully put the final nail in the coffin of this business. Morrison and Ley have got everything they deserve; their self opiniated importance is now charred and mixing with the burnt out embers of their country.

We have no feelings for them, apart from saying that they ignored the evidence, and now everyone else is paying the price. They must go to a burned out bare patch of land in the bush with nothing to eat or drink – they deserve no better ! – WAV

 

 Bet these clowns are not laughing now !

 

 

The ‘Symbol’ of Australia stands amongst the ignorance of the human government

 

Nearly 500,000,000 animals have been killed in Australia’s wildfires

 

Almost half a billion animals have been killed in Australia’s raging wildfires with fears entire species may have been wiped out.

Ecologists from the University of Sydney now estimate 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost since September with the figure likely to continue to soar.

Harrowing pictures and videos have captured kangaroos desperately attempting to flee great walls of flames while rescue teams have been met by the charred bodies of thousands of koalas.

Others reported seeing cockatoos falling dead out of trees and farmers have fled only to return to their burned land and find it littered with the bodies of livestock.

Koalas have been among the hardest hit of Australia’s native animals because they are slow moving and only eat leaves from the eucalyptus tree, which are filled with oil, making them highly flammable. Up to 8000 of the animals — a third of the entire koala population of the NSW mid-north coast — are believed to have been killed in less than four months.

Nature Conservation Council ecologist Mark Graham told the Australian parliament that the fires have burned ‘so hot and so fast’ that there has been ‘significant mortality’ of animals, particularly in trees.

Stand Up for Nature, an alliance of 13 organisations, is calling for an immediate halt on logging of native forests in NSW until the impacts of the catastrophic bushfires on species and habitat are understood. In an open letter, it warned that the impact of the fires is ‘extreme and ongoing’ and the scale of the loss will ‘probably never be known’ but will certainly be in the millions.

 

The alliance acknowledged a moratorium could have impacts on native forest timber industry workers and have called on the government to support them in the meantime.

 

Ley – You can cry – down in history now as an ignoramus responsible for species extinction !

 

Environment Minister Sussan Ley said true animal death figures would not be known until ‘the fires have calmed down and a proper assessment can be made’.