Spring is here, and that means more wildlife in our communities. If you find sick or injured animals, a wildlife carer organisation, such as WIRES, can provide advice on what to do in the first instance
A word of advice if you use netting in your garden. Every year thousands of animals are injured in inappropriate netting of back yard fruit trees, or discarded netting. It entangles birds, lizards, snakes, bats and the occasional possum. The netting cuts their mouths to ribbons as they try to bite themselves free, and wraps so tightly around them that circulation is cut off and tissue dies, days or even weeks later. The animals die of thirst, starvation, strangulation or outright pain and fear in the nets. Many of those 'rescued' die later as a result of secondary infection, or are euthanased because they are unreleasable. The nets go on killing year after year even when they have become tattered to the point they are no longer protecting fruit. Many landowners leave fruit to fall on the ground and rot, or the fruit are of such poor quality they do not eat them anyway - yet the nets remain killing wildlife.
Netting should always be disposed of carefully as animals such as snakes and lizards are very easily trapped when it is left lying on the ground. They are like ghost nets in the ocean, discarded fishing nets that trap and kill marine life. Unfortunately bird netting is readily available to backyard fruit growers through the many hardware stores, nurseries, produce stores and cheap outlets. These deadly products, available in black, green and white, lack any labeling for their correct use and potential danger to wildlife.
