I report this with two parts admiration….and two parts grief.
Admiration at the site of a woman taking off her shirt and rushing into a wildfire to wrap a suffering creature in her arms…
...and grief because of the pain and anguish that the little soul is going through…
...and grief with the knowledge that this could have been prevented.
I thought it important to show this….not just the devastation that the wildfires are doing to our friends in Australia, not just what climate change has wrought, not just what empathy and courage looks like when an individual is faced with suffering and adversity….but how much we as a community and as a people deeply care for all of our fellow creatures that we share this our home with.
With a reported half a billion ( with a b) animals in Australia reportedly perishing in the wildfires.…
...this is but just one.
And how very important that his life and welfare is.
Just one fuzzy life.
How very important.
And please take note and heed...the video shows suffering, and it will elicit tears in many here.
I strongly suggest that our sensitive brethren refrain from watching the video.
Again...it’s definitely TRIGGER WARNING worthy.
Toni and Peter Doherty, who live in Port Macquarie in New South Wales, were trying to contact some elderly friends who live about an hour away in the town of Wauchope, and were unable to reach them.
So they decided to drive over to check on them.
Halfway there, a koala in obvious distress walked across the road in front of their car, and being in pain and disoriented, walked back into and onto smoldering ground, and started to climb up a smoldering tree.
All the whilst, crying in pain.
"We saw a koala come out of the smoke and he was on the low side of the road. And he was walking, hurrying to get across the road. And I said to my husband 'oh no, he's going into the flames'.
I’ve never heard a koala before. I didn’t realise they could cry out.
It was just so heart wrenching and I knew I needed to get him out of there as quickly as possible.”
Peter hadn’t yet stopped the car to a complete halt before Toni was already out, had taken off her shirt, for both protection from it becoming aflame and to hold the bleeding creature, and rushed over to the koala.
"I jumped out of the car, ran down the road and took my shirt off as I ran because I could just see him reaching the bottom of the tree and he was on fire.
And I just took my shirt off and T shirt and then put it over his back so I could get a hold of him and try to smother the flames.
Luckily when I got to him he was a metre off the ground. If he gone up a tiny bit further I wouldn't been able to reach him and i managed to miss one arm off the tree.
Then he turned around and bit me on the finger, they have really sharp teeth ... I managed to get him off the tree, and ... just run away from the flames."
Fortunately, the closest town has a designated facility, the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, and were waiting for them.
The Koala was named Lewis by the hospital, named for one of Toni’s four grandchildren.
He’s a 14 year old male, who lived at the Lake Innes Nature Reserve with 600 others.
As many as 350 koalas are estimated to have died from that colony.
16 others rescuers like the Doherty’s have rescued other koalas there, in a similar matter.
All in decent shape, all things considered.
Unlike Lewis.
Alas, this from the hospital…
Koala Hospital Port Macquarie:
Today we made the decision to put Ellenborough Lewis to sleep. We placed him under general anaesthesia this morning to assess his burns injuries and change the bandages. We recently posted that "burns injuries can get worse before they get better". In Ellenborough Lewis's case, the burns did get worse, and unfortunately would not have gotten better. The Koala Hospital's number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
What do we do now?
What can we do know?
We may feel impotent to help….but we are not completely helpless.
First, we allow our emotions to course threw us.
And we weep.
For Lewis and for the other thousands of koalas and millions upon millions of other animal species that perished in the wildfires.
For the opportunities squandered by those powers- that- be that ignored the repeated warnings from the learned…..that through apathy and greed, chose to bring this to bare.
And as we grieve, we do it both individually and collectively as a community.
Then we act, which can take many forms.
We can donate…
- Koalas In Care
One couple, Christeen and Paul McLeod, have been running a koala welfare refuge since 1993, and have taken in 28 koalas to care for in their home.
- Port Macquarie Koala Hospital www.gofundme.com/…
Such dedicated work. On a modest $25K goal...they have received so far over $3.5 million.
Much of it because of the international coverage of Toni and Lewis.
We can volunteer...which can take many forms.
Hundreds of Americans have traveled to Australia to help...from community and family support, tree and brush mitigation, etc.
Or we volunteer at our local shelter.
Anywhere that we can serve to help heal.
No act of service is to small…
...and will indeed help balance the scales.
For those so inclined, we can pray.
We can light candles.
One thing that we can all do…
...is fight for our earth home by demanding change NOW for the climate change crises that we are now facing from decades if not centuries of apathy and capitalism run amok.
It’s the most important issue of our day...and we must halt it’s progress or we’ll be seeing what has devastated Australia in locales throughout the globe.
How i wish Gov. Jay Inslee was still in the race, if but only to keep C.C. front and center on issue importance.
And we should realize that we all possess the bravery that Toni displayed...if given the chance.
And to thank and admire her actions.
And to those members of the community so inclined to soft, fuzzy hyperbole (if not, no harm no foul..but a second trigger warning, i guess.)
In many years in the future, when this woman finally passes…she’ll meet God.
Who’ll say to her... “You know...I met you once.
I came down as a koala.
You done good.”
'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.'
Monday, Jan 6, 2020 · 12:15:58 AM +00:00 · Tevye
Thank you so very much.
aDevilsAdvocate
Thank you for this diary.
BMScott also posted this link [in this PWB diary] with a number of animal rescue operations in Australia too — so many that it may be difficult to decide where to send your resources when your means are limited, but it’s also very encouraging that there are so many of them.