Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital, based in Chichester, West Sussex, has received a £500 donation from the Shanly Foundation to support their new education project, ‘Respect and Protect’.  The project will educate and empower young people and the wider community to respect, understand and appreciate British wildlife.
Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital rehabilitates sick and injured wild birds and small mammals that have suffered injury, are orphaned, or need specialised care and reintroduces them back into their natural habitat where possible. They also aim to educate the public about wildlife rehabilitation and how to prevent injury to wildlife.
The number of animals that are being bought into the hospital is increasing each year, for example, over 600 sick, injured or orphaned hedgehogs are treated per year. Without Brent Lodge, the nearest support for injured wildlife would be a local veterinary clinic but unfortunately, they do not have the specialised knowledge or funds.
Donations are very important to the hospital. The ‘Respect and Protect’ programme will ensure that animals are protected in their natural habitat, reducing the need to care and support injured wildlife through preventing human inflicted injury with proactive education.
Asha Park, Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital, comments: “Brent Lodge is a relatively small local charity, totally dependent on voluntary donations so we are very grateful for support. We are always in need of regular committed volunteers to help our dedicated staff feed and care for our patients.
“At Brent Lodge we try never to turn an animal away, every patient is treated with the same respect from the humble pigeon with a damaged wing, to a feisty hedgehog in need of nutrition. We aim to treat the animal, and when it is fit and able to be released, we introduce it back into the wild.”
The expertise and knowledge of Brent Lodge is recognised on a national scale and they share information with other wildlife centres and veterinary clinics across the South of England and the UK. The organisation is 75% supported by volunteers from the local community and they offer accredited support to students in work experience to further their education.
Tamra Booth, trustee of the Shanly Foundation, comments: “Donating towards this community driven wildlife hospital is something that we are very pleased to be a part of. We hope that the donation will ensure more people are educated about the importance of looking after British wildlife, even if it is only in their back garden.”
Brent Lodge aim to fundraise £5,000 for the ‘Respect and Protect’ programme and are looking for support with several new exciting projects, including a 5 stage ‘Big Build’ hospital development. This project is expected to cost over £500,000. The first stage will be to build more bird of prey enclosures and to build more water pool enclosures for mammals. The new hospital extension will allow more animals to be accommodated.
For further information on Brent Lodge or to donate visit brentlodge.org