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Knitters From Around The World Are Making Items For Animals Injured In Australian Bushfires

Knitters From Around The World Are Making Items For Animals Injured In Australian Bushfires

People are making pouches and blankets for animals caught in the bushfires

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Kind-hearted folk across the globe are getting crafty to create blankets and pouches for animals injured in the Australian bushfires.

The Animal Rescue Craft Guild put out a call to volunteers who are able to knit and sew to make a number of items including pouches for joeys, wraps for bats and mittens for koalas.

The Guild has said it asked for volunteers it's been inundated with offers of assistance and donations from across the globe.

A joey snuggled into an Animal Rescue Craft Guild knitted pouch.
Animal Rescue Collective

Belinda Orellana a founding member of the Guild, told Reuters: "It's been going crazy. The response has been amazing."

With thousands of animals injured and displaced in the recent bushfires, the Guild is on hand to send out their items to 'thousands of rescue groups' all over Australia.

Orellana added: "It's the poor little souls that survived where we come in. Our group creates and supplies items to rescue groups and carers around the country who take in and care for the wildlife."

PA

The Animal Rescue Craft Guild was only formed a few months back and originally planned to make beds and coats for domestic animals - such as dogs and cats - in animal shelters. However, with severe fires tearing through Australia killing thousands of animals and destroying habitats, the group decided to shift focus.

Knitters from as far away as Singapore, the UK and Germany have crafted items for the injured animals with donations flooding in for animals.

One volunteer from New Zealand telling Reuters: "I'm planning to make as many as possible and am asking fabric outlets for fabric donations to sew."

Animal Rescue Collective

Ecologists from the University of Sydney have said as many 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles could have died in the fires.

Science for Wildlife executive director Dr Kellie Leigh told the New South Wales upper house inquiry: "We're getting a lot of lessons out of this and it's just showing how unprepared we are.

"There's no procedures or protocols in place - even wildlife carers don't have protocols for when they can go in after fire."

PA

Of these animals, it's thought koalas may be the hardest hit, with an estimated 30 percent of just one koala colony on the country's northeast coast thought to be lost.

Shocking images have been shared online showing dozens of animals carcasses on the roadside.

A GoFundMe page set up by Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, entitled Help Thirsty Koalas Devastated by Recent Fires, has raised more than AU$4 million (£2.1m) since it was launched on 31 October.

Featured Image Credit: PA/Animal Rescue Collective (ARC)

Topics: Animals, Australia