2020 started with a massive catastrophe for animals.
2020 started with a massive catastrophe for animals. Australian bushfires have claimed the lives of an astounding one-billion or more animals, a disaster so huge that every bit of help possible is needed. Faced with overwhelming need, NFA focused on flying-foxes. These creatures birth together once a year. In late 2019, a new generation was born into hell.
Freakishly high temperatures killed mothers and babies alike. Then came the fires which incinerated thousands, with the result that an entire generation is at risk of being wiped out. We sent immediate aid to Friends of Bats and Bushcare (FOBB), an Australian government-approved volunteer group who will nurse individual flying fox babies back to health and care for them until they can be returned to the wild. We have just sent further funding and are on stand-by if that is not enough. The crisis in Australia stretched us financially and spread our small staff very thin.
Volcano in the Philippines
Then a volcano erupted near the Philippines capital Manila, a city of nearly 14 million people and millions of animals, raining ash for hundreds of miles. People were evacuated and animals were left to fend for themselves. We have a team based in Manila and they immediately fought against the flow of people running away, going in the opposite direction, to provide food and water to animals. As we write this, our team is still there, doing what it can to save animal lives and alleviate suffering.
Horrifying conditions in Indonesia
Then a supporter alerted us to horrifying conditions on the Indonesian island of Lombok. There, it is open season on street dogs; they are considered vermin and people are free to be as abusive as they like. We sent a team to Lombok and discovered scenes of utter horror. Dogs are beaten, hung and starved, to be slaughtered at a whim.
Many street dogs congregate on tourist beaches and we witnessed what happened. A dog annoyed someone on the beach who then broke the animal’s back and left it to crawl along the sand to die. We immediately provided funding to a no-kill private shelter on the island and have bought the shelter a mobile operating table so that a vet can reach out to the suffering creatures.
All this, on top of the other work we currently do in countries around the world, is to help animals, from cats to elephants. Our work never stops; the need for help is always urgent. We do our best to respond, providing as much help as our supporters allow us to by making donations. We receive no assistance from any government.
What we do, we do because animals need us. And with your help, we aim to extend our crusade to help animals to more countries where animals desperately need help.