Debbie Johnson (owner and operator of Wildlife A&E) has worked with sick and orphaned animals for over a decade. While her two daughters were keepers at the British Wildlife Centre she would often be asked to care for orphans that had been handed in at the centre by the public. As The British Wildlife Centre is primarily an education centre and not set up to be a rescue centre, they did not have the facilities or the time to look after these babies. Debbie’s nursing background and love of animals made her a natural for the role. Then word got round and more animals started arriving from all over the three counties. Debbie has looked after everything from harvest mice to deer, from foxes to voles and from swans to owls. Over the years it became obvious that there was a desperate need for rescue facilities in the East Sussex/Kent/Surrey borders.
David Johnson will be available on a part time out of hours basis to assist with collection and release of animals. David has some experience of hand rearing orphaned animals, including swans, deer fawns, fox cubs and others.
Louise Johnson will be available on a part time and out of hours basis. Louise is currently a keeper at the British Wildlife centre with 8 years experience of care for all species of British wildlife including badgers, owls, stoats, rats and pine martens although we don’t expect to see too many of those in the southeast. It would be nice but that may take decades.
Samantha Johnson is currently living away from the area but is available to help with any overflow of recuperating animals or those which need hand rearing. Sam has worked as Head Keeper at the British Wildlife Centre, spent two years as a primate and big cat keeper at Marwell Zoo and has passed the internationally recognised Advanced National Certificate in Management of Zoo Animals.
Sue and Steve Sturton-Davies, both retired approached us in 2014 whilst we were at Crowborough Fun Day. Sue had worked for many years in Kenya with George Adamson and Steve was a pilot for BA. Since joining us they have been thrown in at the deep end and fantastic help, to extent of having pens in their own garden for hedgehogs, ducks, owls, pretty much what ever i throw at them - not literally!!
We are very lucky to have Alex a veterinary Surgeon who has worked in various parts of the world and is now a Partner at Medivet Forest Lodge in Forest Row. He is always on hand to help out if needed and will always go that one step further if he thinks he can help an injured or sick animal.
Ozzie - our mascot and the inspiration for our Logo. We have to include our Mascot ‘Ozzie’, she is our residential Barn Owl. In September 2010 we were asked if we could look after ‘Barnie’ the Barn owl, whilst his owner was in hospital. Unfortunately, his elderly owner died whilst in hospital and the family have now asked if we can keep Barnie indefinitely. Since moving in with us, there have been two changes. We quickly realised that 'Barnie' is a girl and we have renamed her Ozzie. She has a real character and very friendly and accompanies us on visits to cub and scout groups and to schools. As she is likely to be with us for +/- 20 years it makes perfect sense for her to be both our mascot and the inspiration for our logo.
