Kyalami home to centre to assist urban wildlife
FOURWAYS – Former volunteers of FreeMe Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre spoke out last week after the article in the issue Week ending 15 September, No more Gauteng FreeMe.
In the story, Fourways Review incorrectly reported that FreeMe had changed to a non-profit company (NPC) in 2015 when Margo Bansda was appointed as the FreeMe managing director and a director of the board. In fact, Bansda had told Fourways Review that FreeMe was changed to an NPC on 12 January 2004. The Fourways Review apologises for this factual error.
Two former volunteers who spoke to this newspaper following last week’s article are Margi Brocklehurst and Wendy Brodie. Brocklehurst was a founder volunteer from February 1997 and served on the board for 12 years. She was CEO of FreeMe from March 2002 to 2008. Brodie was a past director and volunteer for 16 years.
As reported last week, FreeMe is now relocating to the North West province.
As a result of the temporary closure of FreeMe, and a concern for the urban indigenous wildlife in need of rehabilitation, Brocklehurst said she and other founder volunteers founded Friends of Free Wildlife, which she said was registered on 31 May last year, and opened in December 2016 on Maple Road in Kyalami.
“We are still a wildlife rehabilitation centre which aims to rehabilitate urban wildlife – small wildlife that still abounds in the urban Gauteng area,” she said.
Garden birds, owls, genets, hedgehogs, squirrels, bush babies, striped field mice and mongoose were just some of the examples Brocklehurst gave of the small mammals they were equipped to assist.
“We are not equipped to deal with hyenas or caracal or any of the larger mammals because we just don’t have sufficient cages as yet,” she explained.
She further described the community’s generosity in assisting to build the centre so far. “The public has come to the party when you see what has already been donated.”
However, with their busy season around the corner, Brocklehurst said the centre was in dire need of more cages and aviaries. “You have no idea what busy is … Wendy and I know what busy is, and busy is going to come through that gate within the next month when the baby season is in full flow and some of the babies will be falling out of their nests. As many as we can get back [into the wild], we will do. But we are going to be up to [large numbers] again and we will be hard pressed to cope. We are able to do it but we need funding, aviaries and a lot of support from our animal loving community,” Brocklehurst said.
In the years before its closure, Brocklehurst said, and Fourways Review had previously reported, FreeMe attended to about 10 000 cases a year.
While Brodie raised the concern that they were not yet receiving the high volume of calls that FreeMe was receiving at the time of its closure, Brocklehurst added, “We need to build our centre, and we know we are going to get calls.”
In the past nine months, the centre has seen just over 1 600 cases. “That’s with no one knowing who we are, where we are, or our phone numbers,” exclaimed Brocklehurst.
If you come across cases of small, urban indigenous wildlife in need of assistance, contact Friends of Free Wildlife.
Details: Margi Brocklehurst 082 561 3681
Talk to us by posting on our timeline, Fourways Review or tweeting @Fourways_Review
