Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue forced to make cuts to its services amid financial pressures
The charity says costs have increased while donations have fallen
Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue (OWR) has announced “with huge sadness” that is has been forced to make cuts to its services amid pressures to the charity.
The charity which cares for hundreds of animals all-year-round, says it's struggling financially as costs have increased while donations have fallen.
They will be restricting the opening hours of the rescue center in Blewbury and wildlife ambulance service with immediate effect.
The opening hours for the rescue centre is now 9am - 6pm everyday, until further notice, whilst the ambulance service is no longer operational 24 hours.
Instead, the charity says the service will operate ‘as and when available to do so’ between the of 9am - 10pm.
In a statement on social media, the OWR said: “The reasons behind these sad but necessary cuts are due to a combination of lack of availability in volunteers, staff members and financial charitable losses which have led to the reductions in the charity's services.
“Our wildlife ambulance service alone is expensive and over the past few months has the charity had to dip into its financial reserves in order to keep the operations of the rescue work operating. As we are sure you can all understand, we unfortunately do not have an unlimited supply of funding or resources.
“Monthly donations have seen a drop and overall donations made to the charity have also slowed despite our outgoings now reaching over £20,000 per month.”
They added: “Sadly, as a small charity, we are only governed by what we receive and the protection of the charity and its patients is of the highest priority here. Nobody wanted to make this statement, but sadly, we have no other choice.”