LAST CHANCE TO SAVE DEVON WILDLIFE RESCUE FROM CLOSING

Devon’s foremost wildlife rescue centre is facing imminent closure unless other premises can be found.

ELM, a registered charity, currently operates at a facility near Newton Abbot. Sadly, due to reasons beyond the charity’s control, from September it faces being homeless and having to close its doors permanently.

The wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre has operated since October 2018 and in that time has come to the aid of over 4000 wild animals either injured or in distress. The charity receives no local authority or government money and is wholly funded by the generous donations of its supporters and the public. An army of highly valued and dedicated volunteers ensures the rescue centre runs efficiently 365 days a year.

However, the future for the charity looks bleak and the vital work it does is in doubt unless an alternative location can be found urgently. ELM Wildlife rescues many types of wild animals but are specialists in hedgehogs and currently have around 200 hedgehogs in their care, a large proportion of which are abandoned or orphaned hoglets requiring hand rearing. They all risk facing eviction if the rescue can’t find somewhere to go.

Emma Hickson, spokesperson and Trustee of ELM Wildlife, said:

“It is with heartbreak that we have to announce that we have just weeks to save ELM. This is not an overdramatisation, this is a cry for help on behalf of all the sick and injured animals that will have nowhere to go if we have to close.

“We need to raise funds to purchase or even long lease land and/or buildings to create a new rescue centre. Although we have raised some funds, we hope that national publicity will help to boost our funding appeal https://gofund.me/f9434bc7 to achieve our target of £400,000, very much like the recent fundraising success for Park Lane Stables where the public got behind their campaign and raised £1.3 million for this charity and Riding for Disabled centre to secure their premises and long term security.

“The land and/or buildings the charity is seeking is somewhere within reasonable distance of the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth and we believe that someone out there has it within their gift to save ELM and, over the years, thousands of wild animals. It is only when we are no longer here that people                             will realise they have nowhere to take sick and injured wild animals.”

Volunteers at ELM say that the news of their threatened closure comes at a time when demand for the wildlife rescue’s services is ‘going through the roof’.

The charity is now asking people who may have a solution to its homelessness problem to come forward and donate to their Go Fund Me to help it find a solution, either with donations or perhaps land and/or buildings available to purchase/lease.

People can contact ELM by email SavingELM@gmail.com or Facebook ELM Wildlife Hedgehog Rescue and Rehabilitation. (Please do not phone ELM – the line has to be kept free for around 80 calls a day about sick and injured animals.)

Donations to help with the cost of purchasing a site and building the new Rescue can be made at

https://gofund.me/f9434bc7