Helping wildlife in Holderness

Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund #12 : Ren's Wildlife Hospital

As Protect the Wild’s CEO Rob Pownall explained in a recent post (see ‘Can you help us build something incredible to protect wildlife?’), “we give a platform and a voice for monitors, saboteurs, anyone out in the field protecting the wild, and we channel every penny we receive from paid subscriptions on Substack to these brilliant individuals.”

Rob was referring to our Equipment Fund of course. We set the Fund up in mid-2023 to help put ‘eyes in the field‘ and ‘eyes in the sky’ by providing equipment like drones, body cams, trail cams, night vision kit, and video cameras to monitors and activists working on the front line.

There was a fantastic response to his post. So much so, in fact, that we can now make an incredible £1000 a MONTH available to those monitors and activists, and look at expanding our reach (well, technically your reach, because we never forget the Fund exists because of your support) to help animal rescues and wildlife hospitals. They’re typically run by people who we would very much consider to be on the ‘front line’ and they are of course protecting wildlife.

This month we were pleased to help with surveillance cameras for the long-established Ren’s Wildlife Hospital. We of course do exactly the same ‘due diligence’ as we do before funding monitors, and ask for the same few paragraphs of text so they can explain what the funding was needed for – and to help us to let similar groups or organisations know that we are here if they need us…

Rehabbed fox cub in ‘soft release enclosure’ before release back into the wild. Image Ren’s Wildlife Hospital

A Buzzard being treated for frounce (the result of infection with the Trichomonas parasite). Image Ren’s Wildlife Hospital

“Thank you so much Protect the Wild for your generous donation towards the cost of our camera monitoring equipment.  This is going to be so amazing.  Every year we take in orphaned fox cubs and help them learn how to cope with life in the wild.  An essential part of the training is to ensure they do not become familiar with us or dependent on us or other humans, and so we stay out of sight, sound and smell as much as possible.  Of course, we still need to see how they’re getting on to ensure they are all learning how to live independently of us, and this is why we need these cameras so much.

We are based in East Yorkshire and if any of your supporters needs help with a fox (or any other wild animal) then they are welcome to give us a ring on 07477 461481 or learn more about our work. We have an active facebook page facebook.com/renswildlifehospital and an instagram pageinstagram.com/rensrescue

We also are part of People’s Fundraising and we really do appreciate any donations people can make.   It is really hard having to turn away an animal due to lack of funds. peoplesfundraising.com/donation/ren-s-wildlife-hospital”

• All images used on this page via Ren’s Wildlife Hospital

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As we explained above, we are able to buy the equipment we give out because of paid subscriptions on Substack. While all our online content is free, any money we do receive from paid subscriptions is ringfenced and used to buy equipment to put ‘eyes in the field’. It’s a simple idea – but the best ideas usually are! If you’d like to know more we have explained it all in our post “What do we mean by “Empowering people to protect British wildlife“?

With your support we will be giving out many more pieces of equipment to groups over the coming months and years. And we will always keep you up to date with how your support is directly helping wildlife!

If you’re an individual or organisation working in the field and would like to apply to our fund please read our T&Cs here first and use the online application form on the same page.