It might be
'Year of the Frog' for everybody else but perhaps
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April 7th, 2008: Many of you might remember when, in March 2005, we ran out of money for our rescue activity to continue (which is branded under the name "Cairns Frog Hospital") and we stopped taking in new cases. Our group (the Frog Decline Reversal Project, Inc.) DID NOT SHUT DOWN - we merely stopped receiving new rescue cases because we did not have the money to care for them. We did a media release to boost donations but almost all of the media coverage said the group had shut down - which of course was false. We tried getting other stories out there immediately so that the community would see we were still around but these follow up stories were not printed. To this day, we are STILL hearing from people who were prepared to donate to us but they didn't because the media said we didn't exist ! We were unable to take in rescued frogs for over a year (we had 70 cases in care when we ran out of money) but were forced to resume receiving a few months after cyclone Larry. As the only rescue entity that could recognise the arrival of chytrid fungus into the area, we had no choice but to resume receiving sick and injured animals even if we didn't have the money. However, our existence since then has continued to be hand to mouth and the demand for our services is escalating! Even after successfully lobbying the Commonwealth government to look into our new diseases, the message about our valuable role in Australia's biosecurity and amphibian health never got through to the wider community. On July 3rd, 2007 when CSIRO issued a press release to announce the joint $2 million project to identify the new problems discovered by the Cairns Frog Hospital, the national media wouldn't run it. The disease problems we have discovered here in FNQ are spreading around the country and we have put in a gargantuan struggle over the past nine years to make the community aware of these problems and to educate residents about more frog friendly behaviour and disease control. We are also doing long distance diagnosis of health problems in captive and wild caught amphibians because there is nobody else (ANYWHERE) to do this. Requests for help come in from around Australia but even from overseas including the USA, UK and most recently Hong Kong. But we simply cannot cover the massive workload or costs involved in rescue, treatment, disease surveillance, education, communications, advocacy, scientific liaison, long distance diagnosis, training, administration and required red tape, surveying, publishing, etc. based on volunteers. We MUST have paid staff . . . but that means we must take in at least $200,000 per year. Even with only a few part timers working 10 hours per week each, we would still need a minimum income of $120,000 per year. In 2007, ou combined income was about $25,000 and that INCLUDES income from the government and business sponsors! No-one could operate with a shortfall that large. Many people have said we should just apply for more grants. Grants don't cover ongoing wages and often don't cover infrastructure either (that's if we even qualify to apply for the grant in the first place - most of the time we don't even qualify). Foundations don't cover wages or infrastructure. Raffles are fine for small things but we would need to sell $2,500 worth of tickets PER WEEK to cover costs. The only way to get wage money is from unconditional money - donations which are made by concerned people all over Australia. Our membership discussed this at the last AGM and it has been decided that if we can't convince the people of Australia how valueable our work is enough for them to want to support us, then we should stop bashing our heads against the wall and implement an "exit strategy". The rescue and rehab of sick and injured frogs has been an invaluable tool for disease surveillance and the Commonwealth government is actually evaluating our methods as a possible national model. But rescue has also devoured ALL our available resources and burdened us with heavy labour demands that have completely overwhelmed us and prevented us from doing "bigger picture" work. Other conservation tools that would assist frog populations everywhere need to be brought online but they can only be initiated if we EITHER: stop receiving live animals, OR: raise a LOT more money to pay staff. We have acquired a level of knowledge that needs to be documented urgently so that others around the world can use this information to help frogs, especially endangered species. Our website, as big as it is now, is not even HALF the size it will be when all the sections are written. And we are losing out on a huge opportunity by not having a paid speaker and dedicated materials for use by schools. After two press releases earlier this month were basically ignored (except by Seven Queensland and the Environment Page of the Cairns Post - thank you both), we received some advice from the National Press Council and we were able to get somebody's attention at AAP. The story has gone out the afternoon of Monday, April 21st and there have been a few bites so far. Hopefully there will be more coverage on Tuesday. After that, it is up to concerned folks like those of you who are reading this website to keep us going. If our bid for help fails, we will start preparing for the cessation of our rescue activity on May 15th. Any money raised will be used to complete the care for the dozens and dozens of cases we have now. Once all cases have been returned to the wild, we will sell off all the equipment and supplies we use for animal care so that the remainder of the group's functions can continue - especially education and getting the rest of the website finished. We extend an invitation to licenced wildlife rehabilitators outside north Queensland who want to transfer into frog rehab to contact us before early May to make arrangements for training opportunities in Cairns before the end of May. The disease problems confronting Cairns area frogs are far too complex to be handled by anyone just starting out in frog rehab after doing a few days of training so we strongly encourage local veterinarians to undertake briefings on handling these animals. Those involved in wildlife rescue activities or vet clinics may also be interested in purchasing equipment and supplies from us which will be cheaper than sourcing these items new. We will put a list of available equipment in our site around the end of May. For those who might be in a position to support our work, we are a tax deductable organisation but we also have a sponsorship program which is deductable (as advertising expense) for businesses of any size. See our Supporters section in the site for more details. We hope that you can spread the word about our situation or do something yourself to help. Some forms of help are needed that are not cash based and these are described in our main Helping Frogs page.
Thanks very kindly to the visionary businesses, individuals and students who have kept us going so far. We hope that our achievements have given you confidence that your money has been well spent to help frogs!
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Last edited: April 22nd,, 2008 |