As you would have heard or seen in the media, our fundraising appeal failed big time. Only $1,700 raised. So what does that mean for our status?

• We still have roughly 50 adult frogs in care, about nine batches of tadpoles which are overwintering, and about 250 juveniles. These animals will continue to be in care and we need money to cover their costs. $1,700 is not enough for that.
  
  
• The "Cairns Frog Hospital" is not a group - it is the public face for the rescue and disease surveillance activities of the Incorporated, tax deductable organisation the Frog Decline Reversal Project (or FDR Project, for short). The FDR Project remains intact and remains a tax deductable, incorporated assocation.
  
  
• In addition to the rescue of the region's frogs, the FDR Project is involved in tadpole rescue, tadpole disease surveillance, education and awareness raising, long distance diagnosis for all of Australia and even overseas, advocacy, surveying, and scientific liaison and support. The only activities that are affected by the redirection of new cases elsewhere is local frog rescue and disease surveillance. All other FDR Project activities will continue. In fact, the rescue activity has sucked up so much of our available resources that it has actually interfered with the rest of what our organisation is supposed to be doing.
  
  
• Frog rescue is the most expensive activity we have engaged in but it is by no means the only thing that costs money. Everything we do costs money and we still need to raise that. So any and all efforts that are being made now by groups to raise more money for us will be used to continue our work using all the tools that incoming support allows with education as a high priority.
  
  
• So far, very few of the area's vets have taken up our offers to brief them on receiving so we are still trying to expand a network of receiving stations for sick and injured frogs. If you find a sick or injured frog, you should still contact us first to find out who the nearest vet is that can receive the frog you have found. ALWAYS use gloves or a plastic bag over your hands to handle a frog. We also strongly recommend that you NOT direct the frogs to wildlife rescue type organisations. These animals need to be handled by those who have had special training, use strict hygeine procedures and expensive chemicals for full disinfection, and have direct links to diagnostic labs for disease identification.
  
  
• Once we have completed the care for all the animals we have here now, we will start selling off all the animal handling equipment and supplies we have to help support our group's other functions. Once a detailed list is available, we will post it on this page for those who might be looking to acquire more supplies for veterinary or animal rescue work.
  
  
• We still need support to do all the frog conservation work that we have been engaged in for the past ten years, but if we are to resume full rescue and disease surveillance activites, we will need a huge boost in support levels. We will also need the government to fulfil its responsibility for biosecurity - after all, taxpayers have already paid for such services but that money has been locked away in a grossly inflated surplus instead of being applied to essential public services. We will be updating our Letter Writer's Corner section in this site as soon as we can so that every Australian concerned about the onslaught on our wildlife and ecological health can start deafening the government with your voices.
  
  
• Thank you to those who have responded to this appeal as well as our ongoing supporters for continuing your donations at this time. Appeal funds will be used to complete the care of our many current patients and ongoing support will continue as always to support the full range of costs and activities.

For those who might be in a position to support our work, we are a tax deductable organisation but we also have a sponsorship program which is deductable (as advertising expense) for businesses of any size. See our Supporters section in the site for more details.

We hope that you can spread the word about our situation or do something yourself to help. Some forms of help are needed that are not cash based and these are described in our main Helping Frogs page.

Thanks very kindly to the visionary businesses, individuals and students who have kept us going so far. We hope that our achievements have given you confidence that your money has been well spent to help frogs!

Last edited: May 27th, 2008