Wildlife hospital a lifesaver for endangered species

I AM the president of the Wildlife Hospital Students’ Association (WHSA), which has been established this year to raise funds and awareness for the new wildlife hospital in Dunedin.

From my generation’s perspective, the work of the wildlife hospital, particularly of Dr Lisa Argilla and Angelina Martelli, is vitally important to ensure that the diversity of New Zealand’s native wildlife is supported.

The hospital is central to the preservation of some of our endangered species, such as yelloweyed penguins, which have had a 93% success rate at the hospital since its opening in January of this year.

This is an incredible statistic, as many of these penguins have been arriving in very poor condition and with lifethreatening injuries and illnesses.

From a university student’s perspective, there is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm around the wildlife hospital and its work. In the last two months, WHSA has already gained over 280 volunteers to help with both fundraising initiatives and the development of educational programmes. This shows a commitment among students and young people to the wildlife conservation cause, and just reinforces how critically important the wildlife hospital is to all demographics in the Dunedin community.

I hope that the ODT continues to keep the Dunedin community informed about the hospital’s ongoing needs, as it is a notforprofit which is completely reliant on donations to sustain its incredible work.

Fiona Thorp

Dunedin

The mongrel in sport

WHEN an Australian wins a gold medal in an aggressive manner, we say they have a ‘‘bit of mongrel’’ in them that our sportsmen lack.

When Sam Glaze wins a Commonwealth Games gold medal in an aggressive manner, we say that’s not the way we like to win.

I put it to you — if an Australian cyclist came second to Sam Glaze in the same circumstances, Sam would be nominated for a Halberg Award.

Mark Wallace

Belleknowes