A WEE COUNTY wildlife hospital is under "immense" strain as staff cope with an enormous workload and dwindling funds during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish SPCA (SSPCA) urgently needs financial support to continue running vital sites such as its National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross.

As the Advertiser reported back in April, around 1,500 members stopped their monthly donations to the charity at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic – equivalent to 20 per cent of its income.

In the weeks and months since then, this decline in funding has continued and the effects are now being felt by staff every day.

Anna Keen, wildlife operations manager at the Clacks centre, told the Advertiser: "The pressure on our team and resources is immense. We need new equipment, more medicine, and fresh supplies.

"It currently costs a minimum of £800,000 every year to run our National Wildlife Rescue Centre.

"It is designed to treat 5-6,000 wild animals annually but we're now operating at twice our capacity and treating closer to 10,000 per year.

"Despite lockdown, casualties have continued to arrive. We're seeing animals which have been deliberately abused by humans, had their habitats disturbed, eaten or been harmed by litter and much more."

As well as treating animals at the centre, the SSPCA's team also responds to wildlife emergencies day in day out.

Anne said: "Our inspectors and rescue officers continue to respond to emergency incidents of animals in need, there are still animals coming in to our nine animal rescue and rehoming centres as well as our wildlife hospital.

"Our animal helpline team is fully functional remotely and remains open every single day from 7am to 9pm to provide advice and support and to pass on jobs to our frontline teams."

But all of this is costly work, and without more funding it could be in jeopardy.

Anyone who can donate to support the SSPCA's work is asked to, by visiting scottishspca.org

Anna said: "Every single person who signs up to support us with a monthly donation will make a difference and will save lives."