On 4th September 2010 WRAS opened the doors to its current Casualty Centre. Back then we only had a single unit. We rapidly outgrew this facility and now occupy four different units. Unfortunately 11 years on we need to expand even further.

Over the last few years we have been limiting and delaying some expenditure to help save money where possible, but some costs like disinfectant, masks and gloves have increased as has fuel, veterinary and medication costs.

East Sussex WRAS is one of the biggest wildlife hospitals in the South East and has plans to build a new Casualty Centre in the heart of East Sussex and has some funds already put aside to help with this. We currently need an extra £150,000 to hit our first target so we can procure land and start the next step in establishing a new centre, but this will be just the first stage in the work. The final costs of buying land, building a centre, installing veterinary caging and equipment, building and erecting outdoor facilities as well as installing utilities and the planning and development is expecting to eventually costs in the region of £2-3 million.

This will not happen overnight. Our current Casualty Centre is too small, we can no longer expand and we need our own buildings and land. We have already put funds aside over the last 5-6 years to help with this project. We aim to eventually be one of the biggest wildlife hospitals in the country with veterinary science and compassion at the forefront of what we do. This facility would have proper isolation facilities so that in crisis times like this there would be no risk to the casualties in care and we would still be able to admit and guarantee casualties treatment without the threat of all our casualties being euthanized.

Over the last five years we have also been putting some money aside from legacies in order to look at purchasing our own land and set up a new Casualty Centre. This exciting new venture will not be cheap. Land suitable for development is often purchased for housing by investors pricing us out of the market. But we are still looking and investigating sites.

We hope the new site will still be in the Hailsham area so we can continue to serve the heart of East Sussex but also increase our ability to help with rescues in Brighton and Hove as well as the Hastings area.

At the new centre we would aim to have additional outdoor pens and aviary facilities, bigger and improved veterinary facilities, including improved first aid and assessment rooms, surgical prep area, theatre, and x-ray rooms. We will increase capacity and look at improving our facilities for holding foxes, badgers, waterfowl, birds of prey, bats, swifts and swallows as well as reptile and amphibians . We also plan to have better isolation facilities so that when Bird Flu or other such problems hit we can cope without risking the lives of the other birds in care.

We also hope we will be able to improve our office and meeting room facilities to make our administration more efficient as well as increase our ability to run training courses for staff, volunteers, students and members of the public. It is hoped that we will have an area for the public to visit, shop and learn about the charity and how to help wildlife.