Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
WHAT a nightmare! Needing emergency care and having to wait three hours for an ambulance. We’ve been hearing a lot about that recently. Many injured animals, particularly wildlife, don’t wait three hours for an ambulance. For many, help is never going to arrive, at all.
The few that do receive care are fortunate. And, it’s thanks to people like Chris Wicks who founded Chris Wicks Wildlife Rescue (CWWR) that at least some animals are helped.
And Chris is busy. He’s not short of patients. Current patients include the tiny pipistrelle bat injured after a fall who does his tiny little best to look as aggressive as he can, twenty one hedgehogs fast asleep in the Hedgehog Room plus several underweight baby hedgehogs in Intensive Care and the kestrel blown into a tree in high winds whose tail feathers aren’t growing.
Maybe a lack of help for wildlife is one reason why mortality among young kestrels is high – only twenty per cent survive two years. Chris is also busy preparing his Intensive Care Unit for baby foxes which he expects will start arriving soon.
The good news is that Chris will be giving a talk at the Ealing Animals Fair next Saturday. It will be a wonderful opportunity to hear someone speak who has followed their dream, in this case, opening a wildlife rescue centre. To contact CWWR, call 07508 010197. The centre is at Stockers Farm, Rickmansworth WD3 1NZ. See more details at cwwildliferescue.com.
Now back to the Ealing Animals Fair. It’s nearly here. There will be lots of stalls raising money for a variety of animals in need – including wildlife needing emergency care.
By attending the fair you can help animals and have a good day out at the same time. It’s a win/win situation.
Many people stay the whole day. There will be fabulous live music and, for the first time, poetry readings with the opportunity to try some reflective writing.
There is also a fantastic programme of speakers including Michelle Clark who founded Dogs The Streets and Sam March who will be talking about how the law firm Advocates for Animals uses the law to help animals.
We’re delighted the fair will be visited by the Deputy Mayor of Ealing and two Ealing MPs, Virendra Sharma and James Murray.
The Ealing Animals Fair takes place on Saturday March 5 (10.30am-4pm) at Hanwell Methodist Church, Church Road, London W7 1DJ. Admission is free.
See details at ealinganimalsfair.london or follow on Twitter @ EalngAnimalFair.