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Now in its 55th year, the charity runs both a companion animal rehoming centre which finds homes for hundreds of pets each year, and a wildlife rescue service which responds to calls from members of the public who are concerned about sick and injured wildlife. In 2023 the wildlife rescue team responded to more than 1,200 callouts to casualties including foxes, badgers, rabbits, deer, hedgehogs, and a wide variety of garden and water birds as well as birds of prey.
Wadars senior animal rescue officer, Billy Elliott, said; “Despite working even harder to rescue and rehome animals in need, we have unfortunately hit a ‘perfect storm’ over the last couple of years. The number of animals that we are being asked to take in and rehome has dramatically increased, while the number of people coming forward to adopt a pet has decreased because they are concerned about being able to afford to care for them properly. In addition to that, we have seen a real drop in our legacy income since the pandemic”.
It costs more than £1,600 a day to keep Wadars’ services running, and gifts in Wills usually account for around 80% of the charity’s income, meaning that four out of every five animals have only been helped due to the generosity of legacies.
Billy continued; “Sadly, since the pandemic our legacy income has fallen short by almost £400,000 from what was anticipated. Legacies are so difficult to plan ahead for and vary year on year, so we do carry a good reserve to enable us to manage dips in income. However, after such a major drop in legacies, this is now a critical year for Wadars, and we really need the public’s help to continue providing our day to day services rescuing wildlife and rehoming companion animals.”
Donations to Wadars can either be made via its website www.wadars.co.uk or by sending a cheque made payable to ‘Wadars’, to Wadars, Hangleton Lane, Ferring, BN12 6PP.
