As the catastrophic wildfires continue to rage across Australia, people around the world have been offering a helping hand.
In the latest local effort, the Centre Vétérinaire Laval have decided to install a donation box in their clinic, encouraging people to donate what they can to help benefit animal rescue efforts.
“I have a friend in Australia who’s an animal health technician who reached out with different ways we can help,” said organizer and animal health technician Sherylyne Scott. “So obviously they’re looking for contributions, money donations, but also many of the rehab centres who are caring for the animals are looking for nests and pouches that they use when carrying for the injured animals.”
According to the Australian Wildfire Fund organization, the fires have so far killed 27 people and one billion animals, and have burned more than 2,000 homes and 20 million acres of land.
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“We want to protect these species that are very rare nowadays,” said Élodie St-Pierre, a veterinarian at the clinic.
The clinic is asking people to donate and reach out to help knit items through the Montreal Crafters for Australia Go Fund Me and Facebook pages.
The page has reached close to $700 in monetary donations in three days.
“I think that because of the intensity of the issue in Australia people really feel like they should help or wanna help but don’t know how so this is a great way for people to help from home in a way that’s really really needed,” said Scott.
“All the injuries from the smoke and the fires it can affect their skin but also all their organs inside so what we wanna do is provide essential care so that afterwards they can complete their healing in the nature,” said St-Pierre.
Wild kangaroos and koalas can only be found in Australia, but the beloved mammals could soon disappear because of the visible effects of climate change, St-Pierre said.
“All these animals have nothing to do with what’s happening right now, it’s all above what they can do and they’re all suffering because of what humans are doing,” said St-Pierre. “Because of that, we want to try and help as much as we can.”
Donations can be dropped off at the Centre Vétérinaire de Laval or on the Go Fund Me page.