A wildlife hospital set up after the Black Summer bushfires faces imminent closure after the New South Wales (NSW) government reneged on a $6 million (US$4 million) funding deal struck by the previous administration.
Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital chief executive Stephen Van Mil said the loss of the government funding over four years was very bad news for native animals.
“We’re devastated,” Van Mil told AAP on July 7.
“We don’t know whether we’ll be able to keep going.
“It went from $6 million to nothing. Overnight. The whole thing got kyboshed in one phone call.”
The hospital was created three years ago to deal with the influx of severely injured animals after Australia’s largest bushfire disaster in 2019 and 2020 tore through the area’s bushland, decimating the local wildlife population….