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Project of the Month February 2025

For their courageous work rescuing migratory birds on the Strait of Messina, Anna & Deborah need our support now more than ever...

The wildlife rescue centre run by Anna and Deborah in the Peloritan Mountains above the Sicilian city of Messina is the only privately organised and, thanks to our financial support, a highly effective wildlife rescue centre in Sicily. The number of animals and birds in need of care here continues to rise inexorably since there is now only one state-funded rescue centre in Sicily.

Up to 3,000 migratory and resident birds, mammals and reptiles in need of help are cared for at the Messina Rescue Centre every year. Despite a tight budget for Deborah, the vet Silvio, two care assistants, and costs of veterinary care, medicine, power and food, the centre still has expenses of almost €52,000 a year.

We want to ease the workload by actively and preventively reducing the number of injured birds of prey admitted to the Messina Wildlife Rescue Centre, which often requires weeks of medical treatment and extensive care.

This is no easy undertaking, as the majority of our native birds of prey, such as Marsh, Montagu's and Eurasian Hen Harriers, Red and Black Kites, European Honey Buzzards, Ospreys and Short-eared Owls are migratory birds that fly to more food-rich regions in southern Europe and as far as the North African coast during the winter months due to the significantly reduced species-specific food supply in our region. To do this, they fly over the Strait of Messina, the strait between Calabria and Sicily, where strong winds and a lack of thermals often prevail, forcing thousands of birds of prey to circle over the mountainous coasts of Calabria and Sicily in order to gain altitude for the energy-sapping flight across the strait or to cross the 5-12 km wide strait in strenuous low-level flight.

And there, on the coastal slopes of the Peloritani Mountains, hundreds of birds of prey are still being shot down illegally by bird hunters for the mere sake of killing and as proof of their ‘masculinity’.

Therefore, Deborah and Anna organised the first bird of prey conservation camp in the mountains above the Strait of Messina in the spring of 2024. With the best will in the world, the two courageous bird conservationists and volunteers cannot do more for the highly endangered harriers, kites, falcons and eagles.

Anna and Deborah can only maintain their strength, nerves and mental stability under such enormous pressure if financial worries and concerns do not accompany their selfless work. With your generous donations, we can ensure the continued and unrestricted operation of Anna and Deborah's wildlife rescue centre and reliably finance the costs of the 2025 spring bird of prey conservation camp. We still need to raise around €21,000.

Please help! Your donation demonstrates your solidarity with the few courageous animal rights activists in Sicily who have to hold their own day by day in a society that is still mainly insensitive to the issue of species protection.

Every donation, large or small, is urgently needed to give Anna, Deborah and the other volunteer bird conservationists endurance and confidence.

The moment that makes everything worthwhile: