It was with the greatest pleasure that Trustees Sandra Miles-Taylor and Janet Campbell travelled up to see our good friends at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on 7th July to take part in their Animal Action Day.  Painted dogs are one of the four species chosen by the park as special ambassadors to highlight conservation issues with the general public and Sandra and Janet were most impressed by all the recent additions and improvements to the park’s infrastructure since their last visit and to the staff’s dedication to getting the conservation message across.

Last year,  Maria Njamba,  education and visitor guide from the Painted Dog Conservation project in Zimbabwe, spent several days at the park learning about their educational techniques and visitor management.   Her visit was remembered with great affection and the Trustees were able to update staff at the park on all the things Maria has put into place in Zimbabwe as a result of her visit.

The day itself was very hot but despite that there were many visitors to the PDC stall and Sandra and Janet were delighted to introduce new people to the work of the project and to welcome back friends who visited last year.  Visitors much enjoyed the keeper’s excellent talk on the park’s 3 dogs and the problems facing the species in general, and the fact that visiting hours to the park were extended.

At the end of a fantastic day, Sandra and Janet were presented with a cheque for £4,000 collected by Yorkshire Wildlife Park for Painted Dog Conservation!  This incredibly generous donation will be used to fund 2 schools with 45 pupils each to spend 4 days at the educational bush camp at the project, one month’s wages for the entire anti-poaching team and to buy five anti-snare collars to be fitted to the dogs themselves, saving their lives should they be caught in wire snares set for bush meat.  In this way, their donation will benefit every aspect of PDC’s work. 

Needless to say, we are hugely grateful not only for the fantastic donation but for everything that YWP does to raise funds for and awareness of painted dogs throughout the year.  This is a great partnership, much appreciated by all at PDC/PDC UK.