rescuing animals from the Netherlands to Australia with ifaw

Sydney, 13 April 2021

Kim Meijer’s veterinary career has spanned countries and continents but it’s Australia’s unique wildlife that has made a mark on the 35-year-old. The Netherlands-born vet started her career in her home country before getting the chance to volunteer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Mexico in 2014. This experience was life-changing for Kim as it instilled a desire to travel around the world.

After leaving her job and becoming a locum vet, Kim soon found herself drawn to IFAW again. This time, her work with IFAW took her to South Africa where she treated animals and dogs in the townships. “I did everything these animals needed from me – surgeries, vaccinations – anything that would help them,” she said. Several months later Kim travelled to Costa Rica where she treated sloths before continuing chasing her dream of working abroad by flying to Australia. “I knew I wanted to work with Australian wildlife because they’re so different. I instantly fell in love with Australia’s nature and animals. They’re so special and I figured the best place to see it all was Tasmania,” she said.

She arrived in 2019 keen to continue practicing her veterinary skills. She found out about Tasmania’s only wildlife veterinary hospital – Bonorong Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary - and was immediately impressed with the quality of care the team delivered to the many species they treat. Kim couldn’t believe her luck when she discovered that IFAW had forged a unique partnership with Bonorong by helping fund the establishment of the hospital and funding its essential veterinary staff. She hoped her experience with IFAW would help her land a job at Bonorong.

“What IFAW is doing for Bonorong – it enables the team to provide the really amazing level of vet skills and care to all these animals. That would be hard and almost impossible to do without IFAW’s support,” she said. She was soon enough volunteering at Bonorong a few days a week where she shadowed head vet Dr Alex Kreiss. That turned into a paid position in June 2020.

Kim now works at Bonorong one day a fortnight and spends the rest of her time running a vet clinic in Huonville. “My two dreams were to live abroad and be a wildlife vet and IFAW has helped make both happen,” she said. “I’m very grateful that I get to work here. The work we do here makes a real difference to the huge amount of animals that come through the clinic and are released back into the wild.”

Bonorong opens its doors to all species – from magpies to wombats, to lizards and Tasmanian Devils – the vet team at Bonorong see some 30 animals daily during summer and up to 20 in winter. For Kim, she’s grown to love Australia’s native animals – especially echidnas. “They’re a really special Australian animal. Australian wildlife is so unique and can’t be found anywhere else in the world,” she said.

Most recently, Kim has been trained to perform orthopedic surgeries on animals by Dr Kreiss. “That’s a very rare skill to have. It makes a huge difference to an animal’s chance of survival,” she said. “I feel very grateful that I had the opportunity to learn that from Alex at Bonorong. In the Netherlands there’s only a handful of vets that can do it.”

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary director Greg Irons said the partnership between IFAW and Bonorong has been an “absolute game changer”. “We are here to help native wildlife not suffer and to get back to the wild and to do that you need a really great facility and really good people involved. They are the two most important cogs in the machine to save animals, and that is what is sponsored by IFAW,” he said.

IFAW Oceania Animal Rescue Program Officer Nicole Rojas-Marin said veterinary care is critical in giving animals the best chance of being released into the wild. “This is why supporting the team at Bonorong was a no-brainer for us,” she said. “We’re constantly at awe at the number of animals and different species they treat and how much this aligns with our belief that every individual animal matters for conservation.”

Press Contact

IFAW Australia

Dominica Mack

m: 0460 432 901

e: dmack@ifaw.org