New Year Appeal

At this time of year, there’s no place like home…

After the whirl of the holiday season, a new year has begun. But January can be a tough month to get through - driving rain, bitter winds, icy mornings, short dark days. So home is definitely the best place to be - ideally with your loved ones, curled up on the sofa, slippers on!

What does home mean to you? A place of peace and calm, surrounded by the people you care about, and who care about you?

Home should be a sanctuary.

This New Year, please help us give orphan animals a home.

: Safia was found in a shack on a 2m chain

Animals like Safia. A seven-month old lion cub orphan. Her mother was shot dead. She and her two siblings were kept in appalling conditions by a man living in the Somali Region of eastern Ethiopia. The two other cubs languished and died. For months Safia was kept alone in a shack, with a 2m chain around her neck. She was taunted by local people, who poked sticks at her and shouted when she snarled.

How could we turn away? As soon as we heard of her plight, Born Free organised an emergency mission. Born Free Ethiopia’s James Young set out on a round trip of over 700 miles to rescue little Safia. Thin and bedraggled, her front paw was deformed, perhaps broken by children throwing stones at her or perhaps caused by a calcium deficiency.

Our priorities were to nurse the vulnerable cub back to health at our office in Addis Ababa, and then to create a temporary shelter at our new Wildlife Centre. But now we must build her a proper home, and ensure her lifetime care. Please will you help us?

The report explains our plans >

Aida the Baboon

: Aida - caged and alone for 10 years

Meanwhile in Malawi in southeast Africa, the story of Aida the baboon would break your heart. At just six months old, her life was thrown into turmoil. At this tender young age, a baby monkey should be inseparable from her mother. But her mother was killed by farmers and sold for meat.

The traumatised infant was taken to Lilongwe, the country’s capital, to be sold as a pet. But en route, she was confiscated by the police and placed in a dilapidated zoo. And kept alone in a small cage. For year, after endless year. Imagine the torment for this social creature. Could you help give her a proper home?

See report for details.

Irish seal pups

: Nicky is just one of the seal pups recently rescued

Closer to home in Ireland, winter is a tough, tough time for seals. Not a ‘typical’ Born Free animal maybe, but none the less precious. And vulnerable. At this time of year, our friends at the Irish Seal Sanctuary in North County Dublin are inundated with sick and injured grey seal pups, many suffering from malnutrition.

Conditions are often terrible - violent storms and turbulent seas. The Sanctuary is working flat out to rescue and care for so many needy pups, orphans that arrive starving, desperate for milk. The Sanctuary needs our help urgently. Their resources are stretched to the limit and they are almost overwhelmed with the number of pups needing shelter.

Please, will you help us help these animals?

Of course, we want to give them the good food, medical treatment and loving care they need. But more than this. We want to protect them from fear and suffering. We want to restore their dignity and give each of them a place of safety, a refuge, a home.

As you sit warm and cosy in your home, please, pledge to help the animals and send us your donation. It’s a New Year’s Resolution that’ll make all the difference!

Best wishes as ever

Will