LINDY Butcher, Carer, ACT Wildlife Inc, has written about the new organisation’s latest mission:

Baby Jack has had a tough start to life. His mum was hit by a car and killed and this tiny pinky wombat joey was not only badly bruised and battered but also sustained a serious brain injury. Rescued by a passer by, taken to a vet and passed on to a registered carer his chances of survival increased dramatically. But it then took the care of a very generous vet and a chiropractor and round the clock nursing by his carer to get him through the first critical hours of relentless seizures brought on by his injuries.

Weighing only 700gm little Jack needs another 6 – 10 months of bottle feeding, then a year to teach him to be a wild wombat and many hundreds of dollars in food and care needs before he can go back into the wild. All of this will be provided by the volunteers of ACT Wildlife. And Jack is only one of the 83 birds and animals in care at the moment.

ACT Wildlife is a new organisation committed to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of sick and orphaned wildlife in the ACT. They have no paid staff or central premises. All work including, caring and providing a 24/7 emergency phone service, is being done in the homes and spare time of ordinary citizens joined by a common desire to do the best for our precious wild creatures.

It costs a volunteer carer about $400 in formula alone to raise a baby wombat or wallaby to release size. Additional fruit, vegetables and dry feed add to the expense. Bedding, heater boxes or incubators and enclosures are also very costly. As many volunteer carers have multiple birds or animals in care at any time these costs be substantial and come from the pockets of the volunteers.

While the group has already received some valuable one off sponsorship they are looking for ongoing funding to help cope with the growing demand being placed on them by the Canberra community to respond to the ever increasing number of wild animals needing urgent care.

ACT Wildlife’s 24 hour support hotline is on 0432 300 033