Sometimes I am left speechless by the actions of government departments. Today I am left shaking my head!
It took many years to finally achieve installation of WILVOS roadsigns in areas vulnerable to our wildlife. Our sincere thanks to Clint of the Sunshine Coast Council, who initially helped get these underway, and more recently to retired Councillor Greg Rogerson. Members of the public took note of these WILVOS 5441 6200 Hotline signs. One lovely gentleman in Yandina drove out of town to get the number off the sign so he could get help for an injured bird in his yard.
So what happened this past week? I was contacted by a local resident who saw the WILVOS road signs had been replaced by 1300 ANIMAL signs. The Main Roads Department did not even call to ask/tell us what they were doing. This denotes not only extreme rudeness, but a total lack of respect. Can I actually go and take down a sign and replace it with my own? If you own a café, would you go and take down a “Maccas’” sign and replace it with your café sign?
Why does this make me so angry? Because when you ring 1300 ANIMAL (when you work out what number to ring!) someone from the RSPCA 24 hour Call Centre answers. Past response has not been favourable.
The Main Roads explanation for removal of WILVO signswas to have a consistent number throughout the state. Wonderful idea, but not much use if not effective. We want help for our wildlife quickly. If someone finds an injured native animal at five minutes past 5pm, that animal can’t wait at the side of the road till 9am the next morning when an RSPCA facility is open.
The fastest way to get help for injured or orphaned wildlife is to ring a wildlife group in the local area. As well as WILVOS there are a number of groups who will all deal with the rescue, or contact WILVOS to do so. Meanwhile, calling 1300ANIMAL could mean a lengthy delay.
Our WILVOS 5441 6200 Hotline number needs to be out there on the roadsides. When COVID-19 hit, where was 1300ANIMAL? The RSPCA facilities were closed and our local members of the public were told by their answering machineto ring WILVOS or to take the wildlife to private vets. Our wildlife can’t wait till the pandemic, or other disaster, dissipates.
RSPCA do wonderful work with domestic animal and livestock cruelty, but an efficient system needs to be in place before road signs are installed offering help for native animals. If RSPCA could pick up those needy animals faster than we could, we’d be ecstatic. WILVOS don’t have paid employees. We are all volunteers.
In my despair all I can suggest is that people put the WILVOS5441 6200 Hotline number in their mobile phone. Our injured animals will get assistance so much faster. We aren’t perfect but we are working on it!
Donna Brennan Wildlife Volunteers Assoc Inc (WILVOS) PO Box 4805 Sunshine Coast Mail Centre Q 4560 PH 5441 6200 www.wilvos.org.au
