After months of selling our books and with the generous partnership of Petbarn stores across the country, we are ever so pleased to announce our first project for the Black Saturday area – Project Bushfire Readiness.
One of the limitations to saving animal victims of a bushfire is being properly prepared and able to go into the affected area. Time is critical. Not only do animal rescuers need accredited bushfire training, but they also need the certified DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment) bushfire safe gear.
Born from the devastating effects of the Black Saturday bushfires, the non-profit organisation Australian Animal Rescue was established by wildlife rescuer Nigel Williamson and his wife Sharon.
Hands-on at the coal face, Nigel and his team spent three months rescuing wildlife and distributing food and supplies to the people and animals throughout the Gippsland, Kinglake and Marysville areas.
Still recovering from Black Saturday and now approaching another bushfire season, Australian Animal Rescue volunteers desperately need equipment and DSE approved protective clothing to immediately respond to a bushfire emergency. The quicker they can get in to treat the animals, the better.
As you can imagine, working with the CFA, DSE and other authorities, coordinating response teams and then hands-on caring for animals, also requires technology and equipment that’s often out of the reach of volunteers and their organisations.
That’s where we come in. Through Project Bushfire Readiness, the Adore Animals Foundation will completely outfit five Australian Animal Rescue volunteers to be bushfire ready. We’re going to supply them with fully approved and treated gear including: Proban-treated coveralls, enclosed safety boots, safety helmets with flaps, gloves, goggles and masks. Not only that, we’re going to donate five handheld radio sets so they can communicate with each other, five handheld GPS units for safety and accuracy in rescues and five backpacks designed for medical supplies.
We’re an independent and volunteer Australian charity with no external funding, so we’re pretty pleased with this donation to Australian Animal Rescue! Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support of every single person that bought our book Moments of Connection.
So if you haven’t done so yet, buy a book, hell, buy two or three, one for your friend and one for your mum because we’re not finished yet. We still have more projects we want to implement.
This project was completed with our presentation to Australian Animal Rescue for equipment and bushfire-safe gear on 4 December 2010. See this article for information and photos of the presentation.
