Charity Insights - Cuan Wildlife Rescue
Can you tell us a bit more about Cuan Wildlife Rescue and the vital work you do for wildlife in need?
Cuan Wildlife Rescue is Shropshire’s only 24/7 wildlife rescue centre, providing care for sick, injured and orphaned wild animals and birds. Our aim is to rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild, where they belong. The vast majority of the wild creatures that come into a rescue centre is a result of man’s interference, be it accidental or deliberate. Road casualties, traps, snares, poisons, litter, shooting, garden ponds and many more inflict suffering, misery and death on innocent creatures. If we were not here doing what we do, many of these creatures would die an unthinkable death.
What has been one of the most memorable success stories from your rescue efforts?
There have been so many over the years, however, our most recent memorable success story relates to a Goshawk, which is such a rare bird. Found on a road, probably due to a road traffic accident, he was brought in to us (quite feisty!) and after being assessed the wing was dislocating severely. After liaising with our vet, it was agreed to strap the wing and allow the bird to rest for two weeks. Potentially this would allow the wing to stabilise, but can also be a difficult stage due to the bird being very stressed – he could easily harm himself jumping around. It is important to carefully monitor and feed, whilst keeping human contact to an absolute minimum. After two weeks, our Hospital Manager reassessed the wing and found it to be firm and stable. At this stage he was transferred to an aviary outside to strengthen up and practice flying. After a couple of weeks he was flying strongly, he was then ringed (standard practice for monitoring) and it was agreed he was ready for release. To rehabilitate and release this wonderful bird was such a privilege.
How does the partnership with Evergreen Insurance help support your mission and the animals you care for?
Cuan Wildlife’s partnership with Evergreen Insurance helps to support our mission to help wildlife, by supporting us with regular donations from their commissions obtained from insurance policy sales. We would encourage all our supporters to contact Evergreen when your insurances are due for renewal and get a quote – should you choose to take out a policy with them, please make sure you mention Cuan Wildlife Rescue as your chosen charity to support!
What message would you like to share with people about the importance of wildlife rescue and supporting charities like Cuan Wildlife Rescue?
As a charity we face many challenges – the biggest ones for us can be public attitudes and education regarding wildlife, as well as running costs. We do like to get involved wherever possible with educating the public about wildlife care, which is very different to domestic pet care. It is often difficult to explain to the public that a wildlife creature with certain injuries or illnesses would not survive in the wild, which is of course very different to a domestic animal who can be cared for at home. Education is therefore very important to us, so that we can advise when we have enquiries, but also by giving talks to various groups/schools to increase knowledge and awareness. It goes without saying, that raising almost £500,000 per year for our running costs is an enormous challenge for us! With no government funding and relying on the public for support and donations, raising awareness of who we are and what we do is incredibly important.
Supporting wildlife in today’s environment is more important than ever – as we impact on their natural environments by building more houses, more roads, taking hedgerows away and forests to name just a few, we need to protect the wildlife that we do have to make sure it survives and does not decline further. By supporting Cuan Wildlife Rescue, and indeed other wildlife rescue charities, you are helping to protect the future of British wildlife.