News-Archive:
Project of the month February

Massive wildfires brought a flood of injured wildlife to our Messina Wildlife Rescue Centre …

Last summer broke many temperature and weather records, particularly in the Mediterranean region. Months of daytime temperatures of up to 42° C, persistent hot winds, and a lack of rainfall from May to the end of October, dried out vast tracts of countryside. Ideal conditions for wildfires that start - partly intentionally, partly through spontaneous combustion occurred - and raced up the still-forested mountain slopes of the Calabrian and Sicilian coasts on both sides of the Strait of Messina.

Without Anna’s and Deborah's good contacts and the quick intervention of the emergency fire department of the forestry authority and the carabinieri, the wildlife rescue centre and the almost 450 birds of prey, songbirds, and hedgehogs, some of which had been rescued only recently, would have been victims of the devastating fires.

Several times during the summer, Deborah experienced the carabinieri's commitment to rescuing birds of prey injured by poachers in their bloody practices. The highlight, however, was the deployment of a pilot boat on the Strait of Messina, whose crew asked Deborah to help rescue three young Common Buzzards and a Eurasian Eagle Owl that had fallen exhausted into the sea while fleeing the flames.

Less fortunate were thousands of swifts and swallows, which lost their orientation in the Strait of Messina, becoming almost blind in the dense smoke of the burning mountain forests. They fell exhausted into the Mediterranean and drowned.

In their great hour of need, we were in regular telephone contact with Anna and Deborah and, with financial support, were able to relieve the women and their three volunteer helpers of their worries initially at least about the sharp increase in the cost of medicinal preparations, food and veterinary work. Many of the bird burn victims still require intensive care under the tender care of Anna and Deborah until burns, plumage damage and eye injuries caused by acrid smoke have healed.

Please help with a donation so that we can financially support the courageous animal rights activists for their rescue work and the purchase of food, medicinal preparations and veterinary costs before the start of the spring bird migration season.

20 euros will cover the food costs for the three rescued Common Buzzards and the Eurasian Eagle Owl for three days. With 30 euros, Anna and Deborah can pay for urgently needed veterinary preparations and veterinary surgeon costs for a week. 50 euros help to finance songbird food for European Goldfinch and Common Linnet fosterlings and inexpensive meat for raptors in care.

We offer our heartfelt thanks for your solidarity and donation support for Anna & Deborah and their self-sacrificing bird and wild animal rescue work. These courageous ladies continue to be a veritable thorn in the side of some regional politicians, poachers and bird hunters.