Country's first state-of-the-art wildlife rehab and training hospital planned for Co Meath

Introduction to Wildlife Rehab instructor Kieran Corry, director of Corry O'Hare Vet Clinic in Omagh, working with a swan.

Vets caring for wildlife on an ad hoc basis, and overstretched volunteer rehabbers working around the clock, means we are only paying lip service to the country’s wildlife, according to campaigners.

But now, a planning application has been submitted to Meath County Council for the country's first state-of-the-art, purpose-built wildlife rehabilitation and training hospital.

The specialist centre will be situated on four acres in Mornington and will include a veterinary hospital dedicated to wildlife, and a teaching area for vets from across the country.

Plans for the much-needed facility, which will be staffed by education officers and volunteers, were submitted to the council last month by Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland (WRI).

It comes after proposals for a similar development in recent years by WRI were unsuccessful following objections — mostly from locals.

However, WRI education officer Aoife McPartlin said the organisation went back to the drawing board and are hoping to get the green light this time around.

“We didn’t meet with people on the last application, and we have learned a lot from that,” she told the Irish Examiner.

“It is important for Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland to engage better with the public and our plans reflect that."

Drawings submitted to the council show isolation areas, waterfowl enclosures, and steel enclosures for rehabilitation of wildlife and waterproofing, as well as the training hospital itself.

One of the main issues with treating sick and injured wildlife here is the lack of experienced vets, according to Ms McPartlin.

“A specialist hospital which has the support of National Parks and Wildlife Service will provide training for vets and information evenings and advice for the public,” said Ms McPartlin.

We need more vets to help with wildlife, and we need training. We don’t have statutory accredited wildlife rehabbing courses here and our goal is to have as many of the frontline people trained up.

“We will need staff and volunteers, but we have been very lucky to have a benefactor who bought the site on behalf of WRI."

WRI, which is a charity, is also planning to work with wildlife friendly groups, while money to manage the hospital will be fundraised.

“It will be built in a piecemeal fashion bit by bit; the most important part is the veterinary hospital building and teaching facilities and taking it from there and we will be fundraising and will be applying for grants,” said Ms McPartlin.

The proposed hospital will also have a board with eight members, including Michael Gunn, a veterinary surgeon and retired director of laboratories at the Department of Agriculture, and David Duffy, assistant professor of wildlife disease genomics at the University of Florida, and natural scientist specialising in zoology at Trinity College Dublin.

Ann Marie Horgan, clinical director and head vet at All Pets in Drogheda, Co Louth, said the proposed facility was “badly needed”.

Her practice currently offers support to wildlife rehabbers and members of the public in the town and surrounding areas. 

Vet Ann Marie Horgan of All Pets in Drogheda, Co Louth.

Ms Horgan, who will be involved in the proposed training hospital, said the facility would show vets how to triage animals, record reliable data, and help members of the public and local rehabbers.

“We are failing wildlife every day,”  Ms Horgan said.  “We have no State agency designated solely to wildlife — it currently falls under housing, but it should have its own department.

“We are years behind the UK. We have overstretched rehabbers and members of the public trying to do this voluntarily also.

Rehabbers are going into burn out, they are taking the time to learn from other rehabbers, but many are mentally and physically burnt out having to deal with so many calls, particularly in the nesting season.

It is an issue Ms Horgan said WRI has “tried to highlight for years” and the “situation on the ground among vets is only becoming more severe”.

She said for far too long we were “dependent on the good will of the public and the good will of private vets willing to see wildlife in the middle of our day with no appointments”.

“We badly need a hospital, our vets are over stretched as it is."