by Simon Cowell
Anecdotally, I only have to look at the ever-increasing numbers of patients that WAF deals with. It is a never-ending tide of animal misery made worse because this country is incredibly poor at building wildlife tunnels and bridges to help animals get around without being maimed or squashed. People may well say there are more important global issues than a few frogs being killed by pollution or the huge decline in hedgehog numbers but if you lose the bottom rungs in the food chain then you start to lose everything else above them.
Undoubtedly the most destructive force on earth is man. On my travels, whether in the wealthy south-east of the UK or the poorest outreaches of the world, the problems animals encountered were as a result of man. Different species in different countries might have been affected, but man was always the culprit.
So what is to be done? Firstly, governments, corporations, leaders and public figures need to do more. People start with the best intentions – they recycle, donate or subscribe – but usually this falls by the wayside so governments need to legislate. There have been notable successes, like the plastic-bag charge and the promotion of electric cars. There have been commendable voices too, such as Barack Obama, the Pope, Al Gore, Taylor Swift and Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 2010 I was invited to give a talk at an event hosted in the Zoological Society London’s base at London Zoo. I couldn’t help but see the bitter irony of talking about wildlife and the environment in a place where people paid to see animals in cages. However, the event was an opportunity to spread the message and raise awareness of WAF’s work.
It took place around a month before the general election and one of the other speakers on the programme was David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party and soon-to-be Prime Minister. I had been following his career and had been impressed with the noises he was making about the environment. He had made a series of eye-catching policy promises and appeared to be one of those rarest of creatures: a politician who cared about the rest of the planet. In 2006 he even famously travelled to Norway where he was photographed hugging a husky in an effort to display his green credentials.
Behind the scenes at the event I managed to collar Mr Cameron and had an interesting ten-minute chat with him about his plans and views. He was absolutely charming and reiterated one of his main manifesto pledges.
‘If elected we are going to be the greenest government this country has seen,’ he explained. I was hopeful. After several years of Conservative rule I am still waiting. The climate change agreement made in Paris in December 2015 was commendable but there is still far to go. Sadly, the clock is now ticking ever louder and time is running out. I hate to sound like Private Frazer from Dad’s Army but we are all doomed if we don’t do something about it. The simple fact is that there are too many of us and in the last 100 years we have taken too much and given nothing back. The planet is saying enough is enough and you can find the evidence at all levels, local as well as global.
There should be a body above politics that looks at every environmental situation and coordinates it internationally, from trophy hunting to solar power distribution. Environmental policy should underpin every piece of legislation, rather than be a sideshow. If we lose the planet we lose the very basis of our existence and nothing else will matter. There is no plan B and, indeed, no planet B.
The more I have seen over the years, the more vocal I have become and for many years I toyed with an idea that grew into a campaign that we continue to run alongside our rescue work. The campaign is called iDot – I Do One Thing. The idea is simple. If everyone does one thing regularly to help wildlife, those actions add up to something huge. The actions themselves though don’t have to be huge. It can be as simple as picking up a piece of litter so an animal isn’t injured by it or even just donating £1 to WAF. There are 64 million people in the UK and if everyone did one action a day, they would add up to 23,360,000,000 positive, planet-preserving actions a year. Thanks to the internet the campaign can be picked up globally and, with concerted action as part of a global movement, one person can make a huge difference.
As I’ve mentioned before, I never set out with a plan. Largely, I blundered through life, upsetting a few people but generally, I hope, doing something positive. Towards the end of 2015 I got the chance to leave a lasting legacy thanks largely to a bequest that was made to the charity. It came completely out of the blue and allowed WAF to embark on its most ambitious project to date.
It started with a letter from a solicitor, which informed me that the charity had been bequeathed two houses in the will of an old lady who died, leaving no family. The story that unfolded around the gift was completely random. The lady had not been involved in the charity and was not a member. She was only told about us by her accountant who happened to go to the same gym as Lou. The accountant had been on a cross-trainer next to Lou one day and they got talking. Lou explained a bit about WAF and later the guy had an appointment with his elderly client. She was arranging her will and mentioned to him that she wanted to leave her estate to an animal charity. He mentioned WAF and the rest is history.
Legacies are dying out so it was incredibly rare and fortuitous to get such a substantial gift. At a time when most charities struggle to survive day-to-day (which we still do) it allowed us the chance to explore the option of expanding to a new site. For some years I had been trying to find a plan for the future of WAF. It was not ideal having the centre and the hospital on the same site as my home. I will not be around for ever and that then calls into question what happens when I eventually toddle off. I’d built WAF around me. We were intrinsically linked but it had grown to be much more than the hobby it was when I first set it up. It had a life of its own, full-time staff and trustees, and it needed to be able to stand on its own when I was no longer around.
For a few years I’d had my eye on a piece of land nearby that would make an ideal base for a new purpose-built centre with a wetland wildlife refuge, an education centre and a new, state-of-the-art veterinary hospital in which vets could practise and also treat our patients. It would be a world first.
The legacy left by the lady allowed us to buy the land and start the process of turning the dream into reality. The scheme, which we gave the working title 12 Acres, will need a £5 million investment so there is a long way to go yet but it represents the future of WAF; the education centre will be my legacy because we have to inspire children. The next years will be about reaching out to the wider community, to our supporters, to benefactors and to the corporate world to fundraise for this project, which is either insane or inspired. I’m not sure yet which! It will take a monumental effort and I’m hoping that the support we have been shown over the years will continue because 12 Acres is so important: it feeds into the future of the planet. We need to start protecting what we have and inspiring young people. At the new centre we will be able to educate and inform youngsters about the importance of conservation on every level. It’s no good concentrating on the big ‘sexy’ species and ignoring all the smaller life further down the food chain. Ecosystems are holistic. They all lock together in a carefully balanced symbiotic relationship. If one part goes out of kilter, it all does.
The new centre will hopefully carry on my work and ideas long after I’ve stopped chasing animals around. I use every opportunity I can as a call to action to try and explain the importance of the project and to ask for donations or support in any way. I’m even hoping that people who read this book will be inspired enough to want to help and get involved, to donate and to spread the word.
And as for my future? Generally, I hate getting older and I won’t be able to do what I do now forever. In the year 2000 my abiding memory was of my forty-eighth birthday and a celebration meal at a Greek restaurant. I performed a regular birthday tradition fuelled by ouzo, in which, from a seated start and in one movement, I deftly jumped from one chair to another while spinning 180 degrees in the air. I had always been able to do it. On my forty-eighth birthday, out came the chairs but I couldn’t do i
t. With horror I realized that age was already catching up with me.
I’ve not got any younger. First, the strength in your arms goes, then you get slightly breathless when you chase a fox and the deer are getting harder to wrangle, too. For years, I have been looking for another rescuer who can take over from me when my body will no longer allow me to climb over fences and clamber through undergrowth; someone who can rescue animals like I can. There have been several times when a volunteer has arrived and I have thought, He’s the one, he’s got what it takes, but people have to earn a living and it’s hard to devote the time the job demands. People come, they volunteer, they look good, I try to hold on to them but I can’t pay enough to keep them, so the search continues.
I have a dependable team of fellow fanatics I can rely on when nature calls but often, in the dead of night when I’m traipsing through a field somewhere on the trail of an injured animal, it is just me. There are fleeting moments when I think I should give it up or slow down but I have a responsibility to the animals, to the people at the centre and to the supporters who love what we do; I can no more walk away from all the animal madness than I could walk away from my own shadow. So as long as there is wildlife in trouble I’ll be there, puffing a bit more, swearing and looking to rescue another poor soul that needs a helping hand.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed reading this book and if it has in any way encouraged you to want to help WAF then please don’t be shy in letting us know. There are plenty of opportunities for individuals, organizations and businesses to get involved in the 12 Acres project and support our vital work. Every day we try to redress some of the harm man is doing to the environment but we cannot do it without your help. Indigenous British wildlife, sadly, is low down on the list of priorities when it comes to causes but it is no less worthy. In fact, I will always argue that environmental issues are more important than any others because without the environment there is nothing.
Please feel free to write to us at: Wildlife Aid Foundation, Randalls Farmhouse, Randalls Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 0AL.
Alternatively, you can email us or donate through the website: www.wildlifeaid.org.uk. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up to date with all our news.
Acknowledgements
Firstly, thanks to my family for your support and for putting up with my peculiar lifestyle, which cannot be easy.
Thank you to my friends for being there through thick and thin, and for always putting up with my requests for donations.
Thanks to all the staff and volunteers who, over the years, have made Wildlife Aid what it is today. Your dedication is an inspiration.
Thanks to my crew at Wild Productions who, through their professionalism and skill, helped make Wildlife SOS one of the best wildlife programmes on TV and also one of the most fun to produce.
Thanks to everyone at Michael O’Mara Books for giving me the opportunity to tell my story.
Finally, thanks to Nick Harding for having faith and enduring my second-hand smoke.
Index
A
adders ref1
Africa ref1, ref2, ref3 (see also individual countries)
alligators ref1
Alston, Bill ref1
amateur photography ref1, ref2
American Crocodile Education Sanctuary ref1
animal cemetery/crematorium ref1
animal diets ref1, ref2
Animal Friends ref1
animal medical histories ref1, ref2
animal naming ref1, ref2
Animal Planet ref1
animal safety ref1
animal torture ref1, ref2, ref3
Animals Asia Foundation ref1, ref2
volunteers ref1
anthropomorphization ref1
Arctic ref1
Argentina ref1
Asia ref1, ref2 (see also individual countries)
Asiatic black bears ref1
Attenborough, David ref1
Atwell, Michael ref1, ref2
Australia ref1, ref2
B
badgers ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
baiting ref1
culling ref1
hand-rearing ref1, ref2, ref3
setts and the law ref1
snares ref1
social nature ref1
volunteers ref1
worm breeders ref1
Bang Phlat ref1
Bangkok ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
‘Bangkok Hilton’ ref1
BBC ref1, ref2, ref3
bear-bile trade ref1
Bear (dog) ref1
bears ref1, ref2, ref3
Beatrice (chicken) ref1
Belize ref1, ref2, ref3
Billy (jackdaw) ref1
Bionic Vet, The ref1
birds of prey ref1 (see also individual birds)
birdwatching ref1
Black Wednesday ref1
blackbirds ref1
blue tits ref1
bovine tuberculosis (BTB) ref1
Box Hill ref1, ref2, ref3
British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ref1
Britton, Fern ref1, ref2
Broadhurst, Phil ref1, ref2
Africa trip ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Asia trip ref1
Brockham ref1, ref2, ref3
Buckingham Palace ref1
Burma ref1
Bushy Park ref1
C
caging ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Cameron, David ref1
Cape gannets ref1
Cardy, Brian ref1
Carr, Norman ref1
cats ref1, ref2
CB radio ref1
Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) ref1, ref2
Channel 4 ref1, ref2
Channel Five ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
charitable cooperative ref1
charitable donations ref1, ref2, ref3
charitable registration ref1, ref2
Charity Commission ref1
Cheetah Conservation Fund ref1
cheetahs ref1
Chenot-Rose, Cherie ref1, ref2, ref3
Chewbacca (cheetah) ref1
China ref1, ref2, ref3
Chinese medicine ref1
Chippy (squirrel) ref1
City of London ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
computerization ref1
Simon leaves ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
warped priorities ref1
City of London Freemen’s School (see Freemen’s School)
climate change ref1
Cloud Nine ref1
Cobham ref1
commodities ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Congo ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
conservation ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
Convention on International Trade of Exotic Species (CITES) ref1
Cooper, Anne ref1, ref2, ref3
coots ref1
copperheads ref1
Cowan, Sara ref1, ref2
Cowell, Gemma (daughter) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
acting career ref1
education ref1, ref2
fitness instructor ref1
grandfather’s death ref1
parents’ divorce ref1
TV series ref1, ref2
Cowell, Jeanne (mother) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
husband’s death ref1, ref2
Simon’s motorcycle ref1
social aspirations ref1, ref2, ref3
Cowell, Jill (wife) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
animal centre ref1 (see also Randalls Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre)
children’s births ref1, ref2
divorce ref1, ref2, ref3
early life ref1
father-in-law’s death ref1
first marriage ref1
love of animals ref1, ref2, ref3
seagull experience ref1
second marriage ref1
Simon meets ref1
social life ref1
swimming pool ref1
TV series ref1, ref2
Cowell, Louisa (‘Lou’) (daughter) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14
education ref1, ref2
grandfather’s death ref1
music career ref1, ref2
parents’ divorce ref1
TV series ref1, ref2
21st birthday ref1
Wildlife Aid CEO ref1
Cowell, Michael (father) ref1, ref2, ref3
agricultural background ref1
career ref1
cremation ref1
death ref1, ref2, ref3
emotional expression ref1
family ref1
handyman skills ref1, ref2, ref3
ill-health ref1
love of animals ref1
menagerie ref1
Second World War ref1
Simon’s motorcycle ref1
smoking ref1
social aspirations ref1, ref2
swan experience ref1, ref2, ref3
Cowell, Simon ref1
adrenaline junky ref1, ref2
amateur photography ref1, ref2
animal centre ref1 (see also Randalls Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre)
anxiety ref1
Belize trip ref1, ref2
birth ref1
birthday surprise ref1
boarding school ref1
bonuses ref1, ref2
bullying ref1
Cape trip ref1
career options ref1, ref2, ref3
childhood holidays ref1
childhood shed ref1
children’s births ref1, ref2
in the City ref1, ref2
City adrenaline rush ref1
City discontentment ref1
dad’s death ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
dark sense of humour ref1, ref2, ref3