Text to Donate
Hospital
THE VISION
|
|
Ireland’s first, purpose built: to save the lives of thousands of sick and orphaned wild animals
|
The new Wildlife Hospital will have:
Join us in raising 3 million Euro to make this project a reality!
Wildlife Treatment | Casualties | Capacity | Staff | Volunteers
WORLD-CLASS WILDLIFE TREATMENT
The Wildlife Hospital will house a wildlife treatment and operating room, isolation wards, an intensive care unit, and recovery rooms / enclosures providing specialised veterinary care for all the animals that are brought into the hospital. The various recovery areas will be designed with proper regard to the very different requirements of different species of wildlife.
The Wildlife Hospital will be a centre of excellence, providing educational opportunities for veterinary students and veterinary nursing students, and wildlife rehabilitators working in other areas of the country. This increased professionalism in wildlife care and rehabilitation will give injured animals the best chance of survival once released back into the wild. This, in turn, ensures they will go on to breed and contribute to the success of their species’ population.
CASUALTIES
There will be no permanent resident non-releasable wildlife casualties kept at the Hospital. Each patient will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and a decision made on whether to treat and release, to euthanase, or to re-locate the animal for further recuperation based on providing the best outcome for the individual.
There will be fluctuations in numbers of wildlife species in the facility throughout the year based on the life cycles of the animals themselves. With the differences in individual’s recovery rates, it is anticipated that there will be animals in care year round.
CAPACITY
All wildlife species in need of attention will be taken in by the Hospital.
If total animal capacity is reached then any subsequent casualties will be referred to other rehabilitators until such time as the Hospital is capable of accommodating them.
A network of charitable and state agencies, plus the Hospital’s volunteers, will facilitate the safe transport of wildlife casualties to the Hospital.
STAFF
The Hospital will be run initially by five paid staff; a Hospital Manager, an Office Manager, a Veterinary Nurse Animal Manager, Assistant Animal Manager, and an Education Officer.
A Construction / Maintenance Technician will be employed on a part time basis.
Additional staff will be employed as finances allow.
VOLUNTEERS
The paid staff will be supplemented by up to sixteen full-time volunteers, and additional part time volunteers. There will be onsite accommodation for the full-time interns / volunteers.
Education | Conservation | Community | Visitors | Café
EDUCATION
The Hospital will have a strong educational element in order to nurture students' respect for wildlife, enhance their future employment opportunities, and provide the highest standards of rehabilitation care for the wildlife casualties.
The education will be provided both through practical work in the Hospital setting, and through courses, lectures and training workshops.
Among other things, the Hospital will be able to provide a City & Guilds Diploma programme, International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council accredited Courses, extramural work experience placements for veterinary students and veterinary nursing students, transition year work experience placements, Wild Animal Management module for the Fetac Level 6 Animal Science Course, internships for Masters students, Continuing Veterinary Education opportunities for veterinary professionals, and animal care apprenticeships.
A wildlife educational programme is planned which will directly link to the Irish school curriculum.
SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION
Thousands of rehabilitated wildlife casualties and captive-reared orphans are released back to the wild each year. Release is often equated with success and very little is known about the post-release survival of rehabilitated wildlife.
Strong emphasis will be placed on post release monitoring and scientific study in order to validate the rehabilitation of wild animals and to gain insights into the animals’ lives that may necessitate change in rehabilitation techniques / procedures to improve post release success rates.
Research and Development will be undertaken by students, researchers, and work experience applicants.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
At the heart of the Hospital project is the Social Enterprise Partnership (SEP) theme; the Hospital will be run as a SEP, and as such WRI has contacted organisations that empower young people and at-risk groups in society, who WRI believe could also benefit from the creation of this Hospital and who may wish to form a social partnership with WRI.
WRI believes that social partnership is an extremely valuable aspect to this project and will be extremely rewarding for all participating organisations; volunteering with animals in a natural setting has been proven to significantly promote social, economic, psychological, spiritual and physical wellbeing.
This project, the first of its kind in the Republic of Ireland, will offer these young people the opportunity to care for injured animals in return for their own educational advancement and personal development.
It is anticipated that the Wildlife Hospital will also provide a social hub for the local community. We see many of our general facilities being usable by the surrounding community and contributing to the diversity and amenity of the neighbouring area.
VISITOR EXPERIENCE
We want the visitor experience to be exciting, fun, educational !
We will offer the visitors the opportunity:
SHOP, CAFÉ & PLAYGROUND
The shop will stock nature themed items for youngsters and adults alike.
The café will be leased to a suitable local company giving employment to the local community. It will serve healthy naturally raised foods, supporting the local community's sustainability through the use of food from independent local farmers who share our vision about the environment and the philosophy of eating healthy safe foods.
The playground will be an outdoor natural adventure area designed to be a safe, fun and educational play area for children.
Buildings & enclosures |
Details |
Animal Manager |
House - kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom |
Volunteer accommodation |
House - kitchen, bathrooms, living room, utility room, bedrooms |
Workshop & storage room |
Workshop & storage room |
Hospital barn |
Main building - waiting room, office, staff room, triage room, ICU, lab/equipment store room, scrub room, surgery, treatment room, isolation room, toilets, laundry, kitchen, food store, bird room, mammal room, baby bird room, baby mammal room |
Large mammal barn |
Kennels - walk-in kennels, animal kitchen, store room |
Aviaries |
Aviaries of various sizes, separated by a covered walkway/ double door entry |
Bat flight cage |
Outdoor fine mesh aviary |
Waterfowl enclosures |
Enclosures with small pools, enclosure with lake that is enclosed with double doors between them for secure entry |
Fox, badger, otter enclosures |
Secure enclosures with underwiring and overhang, containing various environmental enrichment items |
Deer sheds & paddock |
Fawn enclosures, deer paddock with double doors between them |
Hedgehog overwintering |
Enclosure with sleeping and exercise area |
Additional animal barn |
Barn - kitchen, store room, more kennels/cages, oiled bird facility |
Seal kennels |
Row of outdoor runs, covered area at one end, gate at the other, solid removable dividers between runs to enlarge as required |
Medium size seal pool |
Shallow pool with natural filtration system and submersible pump |
Large pre-release seal pool |
Deep pool with natural filtration system and submersible pump |
Visitor centre |
Building with shop, exhibition area, office, meeting point (for school groups to gather) |
Education centre |
Building with library, office, store room, lab, class room, conference room; for use by staff, volunteers, and local community groups, for courses, classes, meetings etc |
Café |
Café (for visitors) |
Wildlife outdoor education |
Sculptures, tree-bog, reed beds, woodland walks, forest garden, nature trail... |
Visitor viewing facilities |
Including natural barriers, hides, remote cameras, boardwalks and discovery trails |
Playground |
Outdoor natural adventure area designed to be safe, fun and educational |
GALLERY
ANIMALS
|
|
|
|
|
|
VISITOR VIEWING
|
|
|
OUTDOORS
|
|
|
Fundraising Ideas
Send a Squirrel
