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The
story of Vale Wildlife Rescue by Caroline Gould, founder and
manager of Vale Wildlife Rescue.
 Vale Wildlife
Rescue took in its first patient back in 1984, although at
that time the Centre had no name but was merely the back
garden of a semi-detached house (pictured) in Cropthome, a
small village midway between Evesham and Pershore in
Worcestershire.
I have always been an animal lover, having kept countless
pets when I was young; dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters and all
the other creatures that children love to keep, until the
novelty wears off and good old Mum and Dad are left to look
after them!
My earliest memory of a casualty in need of attention is
that of a baby squirrel that my brother found drowning in a
bucket of water. I must have been about six at the time and
I didn't understand at that age that the squirrel was a wild
animal and must eventually be released back where he
belonged. We hand-reared Cyril (very original) until he was
old enough to fend for himself. I will never forget how
upset I was when we took him to our local park for release.
I now know that this was the right thing to do and we saw
him many times after that living with the other squirrels in
the park.
I think that was when I decided that I would like to work
with animals in some way when I grew up (but doesn't every
young girl want to work with animals at some stage?) Over
the next few years I kept many animals and by 1984 I had
developed quite an interest in birds of prey. Knowing this,
one of our local vets contacted us to ask whether we could
take in an injured tawny owl which had been hit by a car.
The vet had carried out the initial first aid on the owl,
but he felt that a veterinary surgery was not the right
environment to keep the bird in while it recuperated.
 Following that referral from the vet, other casualties began
to arrive via local surgeries, and before long, members of
the public started to turn up with injured wildlife.
Slowly but surely our back garden became filled with more
and more aviaries and enclosures, our lovely new
conservatory became our hospital unit for patients that
needed more intensive care and most of our spare time was
given over to looking after wildlife.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that there was a
desperate need for a proper wildlife hospital in our part of
the country that the public could contact at any time for
advice as well as practical help. There were Centres
catering for stray dogs and cats and even farm animals but
there was nowhere that we knew of that specialised in wild
animals and birds. The problem was that to set up a facility
like that would involve an awful lot of both time and money.
The time aspect, we could manage ........ the money side, we
couldn't. So for the time being we had no choice but to
continue as we had been doing, taking in a few casualties
whenever we were needed.
Things changed a couple of years later when we decided that
something more constructive HAD to be done. I was getting
sick and tired of hearing about injured wildlife that was
'put out of its misery' or 'left to let nature take its
course'. How could it possibly be left to Nature, when most
of the problems and injuries were caused by humans? I
believed then, and still do now, that we all have a
responsibility to help in some way, and I became more and
more determined that we had to do more towards safeguarding
our environment and the wildlife in it. We were never going
to get anywhere by sitting back and waiting until we could
afford to set up a wildlife hospital - we had to publicise
our existence so that people would know where they could get
help from, and then we would worry about where the funds
were going to come from! ! !
So, Vale Wildlife Rescue was officially launched.
In May 1990, Vale Wildlife Rescue became a Registered
Charity, and we hoped that this would make the difficult job
of raising funds slightly easier. We now welcomed help in
the form of Deeds of Covenant, legacies bequeathed to us in
Wills, regular financial donations by Standing Order as well
as donations of tinned pet food, good quality bric-a-brac
for selling and also raffle and tombola prizes.
We also approached Companies in the hope of gaining support
and sponsorship from the business world.
Within a year, we had totally filled our garden with pens
and aviaries, which left us with a problem. We had two
choices: we could either give up everything we were doing
and stay where we were, or we could sell the house and move
to somewhere with enough land to enable us to continue our
work.
We opted for the latter, sold the house at a ridiculously
low price, bought a mobile home and moved onto an acre of
rented ground nearby. We managed to raise enough money to
purchase a second-hand portacabin which served as our
hospital unit and we then spent every spare minute we had
going to all the local car boot sales so that we could
afford to buy foodstuffs, pay veterinary bills and purchase
materials for building more pens and aviaries.
In November 1992 we moved yet again.
Thanks to a very generous donation from a local businessman
and additional support from caring people in our area, the
Charity managed to purchase our present site, 6.5 acres of
land in the village of Beckford at the foot of Bredon Hill.
Since then a further 4.5 acres have been bought for us by a
local businessman.
 In February 1993 a large portacabin measuring 72ft by 24ft
was donated to us. Once in place (a huge operation involving
four lorries and a massive crane) it meant that we could do
away with our tiny 16ft hospital unit, and for the next two
years we worked on rebuilding the inside of our new
hospital, creating both large and small mammal rooms, a bird
room, a treatment room (enabling our vet to carry out
certain operations on-site, saving casualties the added
stress and trauma of being transported backwards and
forwards to the surgery), office, kitchen, reception and
shop.
At Vale Wildlife Rescue, we take in all British wildlife and
our days are very busy. We are constantly cleaning out and
feeding, medication has to be administered daily, casualties
have to be collected or admitted when brought in, orphaned
birds and mammals need to be fed as often as every ten
minutes from dawn until dusk and beyond, patient records
have to be completed and updated and when they have all been
checked for the last time in the evening, we are on standby
for emergency call-outs at any time during the night.
We travel great distances in the course of our work and we
receive calls for help and advice from all over the British
Isles and Europe.
Another problem associated with the care of wildlife is that
of the different types of food needed by different species.
As an example, these are just some of the foods found in our
hospital kitchen: mealworms, day old chicks (dead of
course!), tinned pet food (we use between 500 - 1,000 tins
per week, depending on the time of year), maggots, fruit and
veg, fish, insects, corn, hay, several types of milk
replacer, vitamin and mineral supplements and just about
every type of bird seed available.
Then there is the medication needed. We use a wide range of
different drugs and treatments. New drugs are becoming
available all the time, many of which have never been tried
on wild animals and birds. The costs involved in some of the
treatments that we use are extremely high, but we will use
whichever form of treatment is best for the casualty,
regardless of cost.
All this is done using funds raised by us, subscriptions to
our Membership scheme and donations from members of the
public - we get no funding from anywhere else and we often
struggle to keep going financially.
 In July 2001, after managing to raise over £150,000, we
moved into our new, purpose-built hospital, and not before
time. Our old building was literally falling apart around
us, the floors were rotten and water poured through the
ceilings whenever it rained. Despite many problems during
the building works, and having to take out a £50,000 loan to
pay for the extra, unexpected costs, it is fantastic to now
be in a spacious, warm, dry hospital with much-improved
facilities for both the staff and for the casualties in our
care.
And what about the future? It all depends on funding.
Projects in the pipeline (the fundraising continues!!):
- A
classroom - the much-needed education facility we want
so that we can expand the work we do with schools and
colleges as well as running courses in wildlife first
aid and rehabilitation, not only for colleges but also
for the public. We have obtained planning permission for
a purpose-built, £400,000 Education and Training Centre
complete with temporary accommodation for students.
Properly constructed pools for waterbirds, otters etc.
- We still
have a long, long way to go before we can offer our
wildlife all the care, treatment and facilities it
needs. Finance is always a major stumbling block, with
ever-increasing running costs, veterinary and food bills
etc., but one day, with your help, our aims and
ambitions WILL become reality.
IF YOU CAN
HELP US IN ANY WAY, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH.
ANY DONATION, HOWEVER SMALL, WILL GO TOWARDS HELPING VALE
WILDLIFE RESCUE TO CONTINUE, EXPAND AND IMPROVE THE
FACILITIES AND THE CARE THAT WE GIVE TO SICK, INJURED AND
ORPHANED WILD BIRDS AND MAMMALS.
Thank You.
Caroline
Gould
Founder & Manager
email
caroline@vwr.org.uk
Vale Wildlife Rescue
Registered charity
No. 702888
email
info@vwr.org.uk
telephone - 01386 882288 (treatment &
rehabilitation)
Last
updated
20 May, 2008
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