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International Medical Funding and Major Conservation Efforts

Cindy Lee and her Wags & Menace Make a Difference Foundation have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals in the United States since 1996. Now the foundation has gone global, working with international rescue organizations to help fund life-saving emergency medical care for orphaned and endangered wildlife in Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Costa Rica, New Zealand, the Galapagos, and Malaysia. “The goal is to rehabilitate and release them back to their native habitat,” Lee says, noting that the expansion is a complement to the foundation’s work in the states. “By being a good global ambassador for life-saving emergency medical care, we can directly impact the lives of animals around the world.”

The Foundation supports a rescue center in Australia for orphaned baby kangaroos who need around-the-clock emergency medical care and bottle feedings; the Toucan Rescue Ranch and Sloth Institute in Costa Rica for endangered toucans, spider monkeys, sloths, armadillos, and anteaters; and International Animal Rescue, a group that cares for sloth bears and endangered, orphaned baby orangutans escaping wildfires in Malaysia and Indonesia. In Africa, the Wags & Menace Foundation provides for emergency field medical care at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for orphaned baby elephants and the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which protects four different species of giraffes.

Wags and Menace Make a Difference Foundation are making an international coordinated effort by funding emergency medical efforts for the Snow Leopard Trust in Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Kyrgyzstan. This includes a multi-country survey supporting a global initiative called PAWS (Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards). These invaluable surveys will help determine if there is ample food source to sustain the snow leopard populations. Also included in this initiative is the hotline service for local communities and rangers they can call to help in mitigating snow leopard problems in the various regions. As well as socio-economic programs, handicrafts, livestock insurance, and livestock vaccinations.