A New Zealand volunteer firefighter is organising a national effort for collecting items for wildlife caught up in the bushfires in Australia.
Vanessa Veart-Smith said the response from the New Zealand public has been overwhelming since she started a Facebook page for donating items to help animals with their recovery yesterday afternoon.
“There’s Salvation Army for people and donations online but for animals, there seems to be little,” she said.
Auckland-based Vets North and nationwide Saddlery Warehouse are collecting donations, with DSV Global Transport agreeing to provide transport of a container of the items from Auckland to Melbourne, Ms Veart-Smith said.
“It’s two to three dollars for vet wrap, as little as that, if we could get 100 bandages that’s 100 animals we can be helping out.”
Halters and leg ropes for horses stuck at fire-damaged properties are also needed, for people who can afford to donate more costly items, she said.
“Items need to be new to get through Customs quickly.”
Ms Veart-Smith said the response to the call for donations has gained the same traction online in one day, that there was over the two week period in which she organised donations for the Queensland floods in 2009.
For that event, five pallet loads of items were collected and Ms Veart-Smith said she expects this effort to be a lot larger.
Ms Veart-Smith said donations should be dropped off to the collection points by next Friday, but the timeline could change based on demand and when the items can be transported to DSV in Auckland.
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