The UK pet insurer, Animal Friends Insurance, which pledges its net profits to funding animal welfare projects worldwide, is funding a 20 strong team out of 120 crew members of the charity SARA ( Severn Area Rescue Association ) to be trained on a “mammal medic” course to rescue dolphins and other marine mammals stranded in the Severn Estuary in South West England.
SARA usually rescues people rather than wildlife but there is an increasing demand for cetacean rescue, particularly in the Severn River area.
David Thompson, Executive Fundraising Officer of SARA, said: “There is an increasing risk of our being called to assist with beached or injured mammals in the Severn Estuary. Perhaps this is due to climate change . Until now we have not had anyone trained to deal with handling these creatures so Animal Friends’ funding the training of our crews to get the specialist training needed has been a huge help and will undoubtedly save the lives of many marine mammals over the coming years.”