VulPro was established as a non-profit organization in 2007, with the goal of becoming a leading vulture conservation program by advancing knowledge, awareness, and innovation in the conservation of African vultures. Since its founding, VulPro has grown into a world-renowned and well-recognized vulture conservation organization. The centre currently houses over 250 non-releasable vultures and is the only organization that does both in-situ and ex-situ vulture conservation work.
We want to continue to lead the conservation effort of these birds by increasing our standard of care even further. Therefore, VulPro is raising funds to build an on-site veterinary hospital.
We currently work with the skilled hands of fantastic veterinarians, and while they do amazing work on our birds, their clinic is a 30-minute (minimum) drive from the VulPro property. Transporting the birds that far is time-consuming and stressful, both for our staff and for the birds. A hospital on site would delete those hours spent driving to and from the clinic during the week, but more importantly, eliminating that long of a transport would significantly decrease the amount of anxiety the birds endure for each veterinary procedure. With an on-site hospital, emergency cases and birds that need life-saving care could be treated immediately upon arrival, potentially increasing overall survival rates of rescued vultures.
Currently, we have a few enclosures designated for “hospital patients” – birds that are new intakes, birds that are ill, and birds that are undergoing rehabilitation after procedures, all in an effort to enhance their chances of release. While these enclosures are perfect for the needs of the vultures’ general lifestyle, they are not ideal for preventing further illness, post-op infections, or the spread of infectious disease. The enclosures are outdoors and cannot be climate controlled. When we need to keep a bird clean, regulate their temperature, or keep a close monitoring schedule on a bird, we have been using the showers of our staff to do so. While this has worked relatively well, a hospital care unit would be a more appropriate environment to monitor unhealthy birds.
Donations will be used for the planning, construction, and stocking of a full-scale veterinary hospital specifically geared toward birds. This will include a surgery suite, treatment area, X-Rays, housing for post-op recovery and long-term care patients, as well as facilitate isolation areas if the need arises. In an effort to minimise costs, we are planning on utilising some of the current structures on the property, but these will still need quite a bit of remodelling and additions in order to facilitate our needs.
Our mission has always been to increase the survival rate of these critically endangered birds. We strive to provide our birds with the best possible care with the least amount of stress. An on-site hospital is another way we are continuing to enhance our care of these amazing, and critically endangered birds. Will you help us help them by donating to the construction of an on-site veterinary clinic
