Essential pet products such as medicine and food are desperately needed across flood-affected regions in Northern NSW and Queensland.
Nikita Stibbard, equine veterinarian from Richmond River Equine Veterinary Services, said herself and a team of veterinarians and volunteers have been donating their time and money helping sick, injured, and stranded livestock across the Northern Rivers area.
“We have an amazing team who have been treating horses, cattle, and smaller animals. Obviously, there are the veterinarians, but there are also fantastic volunteers who have been delivering feed, driving up in boats, and driving horses in floats here there and everywhere.”
Until recently all efforts were privately funded, with much of the team paying out of their own pocket for essential products and services such as helicopters and boats to perform rescues.
Stibbard said businesses looking to donate goods can find a setup at Bangalow Showground where they are treating horses and are always looking for supplies, alternatively there is also a GoFundMe created to cover the out-of-pocket expenses such as medicines, foods, supplies, helicopters, and boats.
One company that has already donated to the flood relief is online pet retailer Budget Pet Products, which donated crates of essential pet products to flood-affected regions in Northern NSW.
The company, whose warehouse on the Gold Coast was luckily unaffected, donated essential products such as food and medicine to the Lismore area with the help of their logistics partners, Aramex.
Michael Chen, Co-Founder of Budget Pet Products, said given the chance of contamination in the water, medicines such as flea and tick prevention were vital.
“We have a lot of staff who have been nurses, so we relied on their expertise and also our industry expertise to work out what the most essential necessities were and through our research we made sure that our donated goods were going to those most in need.”
Charitable organisation GIVIT are requesting donations of non-perishable pet food, blankets, and vouchers for local pet/livestock supplies in impacted regions.
“GIVIT works directly with councils, outreach teams, charities, and community groups to identify exactly what’s needed to make sure people get what they need, when they need it,” said a GIVIT spokesperson.
GIVIT donates 100 per cent of funds raised towards the affected communities, and where possible purchases items from local providers to support the economic recovery of impacted regions.
Image: LinkedIn/Michael Chen