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ALANA HURD
'WORLD WILD EXPERT'
ME, MYSELF & I
I think that our planet is structured to be a 'Planetary Paradise' in and of itself, within & about itself. That's what my life & professional goals are about: enabling this planetary paradise.
I think that if we are honest with ourselves (recognising that every one of us, no matter our species, is a ‘wild’ creature and that we are all born equal & fundamentally free) and coexist honestly with one another, then our only possible actions are to thrive together. In doing so, we enable our whole planet to thrive.
INTRODUCTION
'Our Planet (Our Paradise)' is my life's overarching focus & main organisation (enabling a 'Planetary Paradise') under which my 3 smaller, grass roots, worldwide and UK based non profit efforts occur.
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I am the author of 'Our Planet - A Love Story'. I am also running my first set of 'Wild Events' & 'Wild Adventures' during 2024.
'Wildscaping Worldwide' is the organisation under which all of my ‘wildscaping work’ operates.
I have also founded (and co-founded) these ‘wildlife emergency service organisations’ that run independently of WW: UK Wildlife Transporters & the Wildlife Care Badge.
Ideally, I hope to play my part in manifesting a wild world where these 2 ‘wildlife emergency service organisations’ will only be required on a very small scale, in rare emergencies. Until then, I intend for them to stand up for wildlife rights in the UK for as long and as much as they are required.
[I also run my home as a popular Airbnb. I love to see how much guests enjoy the seaside location that I am lucky enough to live in and I regularly raffle a stay here as a prize to raise funds for UKWT and the WCB. I also gift a few stays a year here as raffle prizes to various other human & animal welfare non profits, to help them to fund their own work.]
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I have 24 years of experience in human and animal welfare & during the last 7 years I’ve been specialising in overall ‘planetary well being.’
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I specialise on the topic of our human place within our planet: focusing on starting a new relationship with ourselves (as human beings) and a new relationship with our planet - as a whole - and all other planetary creatures, enabling us all to thrive together.
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I am the author of the ‘Wildscaping Our World’ Handbook.
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I am an award winning ‘Wildscaping Designer’: drawing up wild designs for council land and church land (to name a couple of WW projects) to help humans and all wildlife to share the spaces. Both the council and church in question won eco & environmental awards for implementing our designs.
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I am a ‘Wildscaping Consultant’ (for public officials, land owners & property owners).
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Under the umbrella of WW (and as a very personal mission) one of my most challenging, most fulfilling efforts during 2020/21 was being able to step in and help 24 animals (a llama, pigs and birds) to be spared from a meat auction and instead be safely secured & transported to sanctuary for a new life, as free, loved individuals. This was done with the help of Advocates For Animals. This may seem a different mission to standing up for wildlife rights but in fact, I think that it’s just another wild effort (I call it a ‘wild effort’ as we are all ‘wild creatures’ and we all deserve to live, free from commercial exploitation) here: https://www.wildscapingworldwide.com/post/lives-saved
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During Spring/Summer 2020, as I was officially launching WW, I also volunteered with an online wildlife support service (advising members of the public - who had found wildlife casualties/orphans - on which were their closest Wildlife Rescues). It was immediately apparent that up to 30% of wildlife casualties/orphans were dying just because they couldn’t get to medical care in time or at all, due to lack of transport opportunities…
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I launched UK Wildlife Transporters in August 2020, to offer a service to those members of the public who had found wildlife casualties but who had no transport of their own: they would call us and a UKWT Volunteer Driver would pick up the casualty, to transport to a Vet/Wildlife Rescue.
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I was lucky enough to be able to call on the experience and advice of large rescues (running teams of Drivers) and animal ambulance services on how to get set up and then I upgraded further after a few months to commission our own extensive legal policy - drafted by Advocates For Animals - on our own animal welfare standards as well as purchasing Vet recommended carriers for all of our Drivers to use for every transport.
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From August 2020 to June 2022 we transported almost 600 wildlife casualties/orphans to emergency medical care & assisted in securing rescue space for up to another 2000. In June 2022 demand had grown so much that we have now massively upgraded our model to better meet the demand and we are in the process of fundraising to start to fill in the transport gap across every inch of the UK (hopefully by 2028). You can check out our new set up and vision on the website, www.UKWildlifeTransporters.org, if you would like.
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In May 2023 I officially and temporarily closed UKWT while we fundraised for our first wave of staff. You can find out all about our fundraiser HERE. We are looking to help over 10,000 wildlife casualties/orphans in 2024.
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When I launched UKWT, I had no idea that wildlife rehabilitation wasn’t regulated in any way in England, Wales & Northern Ireland. It was through running UKWT that I first got a proper ‘overview’ of wildlife rehabilitation in the UK, connecting with up to 100 Wildlife Rescues nationwide during 2020/2021 alone (from large centres to small, home based premises) as well as coordinating with Vet Practices across the UK. The WCB is a form of self policed ‘wildlife care’ regulation from within the wildlife rescue/rehabilitation community…
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I founded the WCB because I had the initial idea to see about developing a form of self regulation from within the Wildlife Rescue Industry itself and I was also in a position - already collaborating with lots of Wildlife Rescues & Vet Practices, running UKWT - to invite & oversee a united community of Wildlife Rehabbers & Vet Professionals, as I took on a Project Management role.
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The WCB has been developed (I project managed it & all of the wildlife rehabilitative specialist development & content came from Wildlife Professionals) through a uniting of Wildlife Experienced Vets, Small 'Home Premises' Rehabbers, larger Wildlife Rescue Centres, General Practice Vets and other Wildlife Professionals. During 2021/2022, for over a year there were approximately 50hrs of Zoom meetings on every topic. There were extensive, multiple revisions as the WCB got ready to launch its first badge/policy, the RR&T Badge, in February 2022. (Its second badge, the LTC Badge, is still in development).
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Since the WCB launched its first badge, the WCB has formed its own WCB Committee to oversee our operational standards: we now have a WCB standards committee of 14 Vet Professionals & Wildlife Rehabbers, all with different backgrounds and experience and all situated across the UK.
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Our first wave of Wildlife Rescues/Rehabbers have signed up to process themselves through the WCB accreditation scheme.
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The WCB has held a number of professional ‘wildlife educational’ Webinars so far, uniting & benefitting Vet Professionals & Wildlife Rehabbers alike (with even more already suggested & on the way to being organised).
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The VWSP…. Under the banner of the WCB, the ‘Vet Wildlife Support Package’ has launched and has been requested by 60 Vet Practices in the UK so far…. This package is a collection of 'How To Guides' - that have been united and made much more accessible under the WCB banner - that have all been developed by wildlife trained Vets, for general practice Vets to use, in practice. These 'How To Guides' will hopefully aid in the treatment of 100s of wildlife casualties. Why is this important? Because… “As most Vets leave school with only very minimal wildlife training (and each wild species requires specialist care) making the VWSP accessible/available nationwide will make a huge difference to many wild lives: it could ensure that 1000s of wildlife casualties (who are dropped into Vets Practices, by members of the public) are successfully treated instead of being euthanased due to lack of knowledge.”
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The WCB has also just launched 2 new groups - under its umbrella - set up to aid Vet Professionals and Wildlife Rehabbers (in even greater numbers) to help and support one another to best save and serve our UK wildlife.
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The WCB Bat Badge was developed over 2023 & launched in December 2023.
CO-FOUNDER OF THE WCB (AND CO-DEVELOPER)
(WCB DEVELOPMENT BEGAN IN FEBRUARY 2021 & THE WCB’S FIRST ACCREDITATION LAUNCHED FEBRUARY 2022 - ongoing)
I have a rather eclectic background (as per my previously referenced '23 years of experience in human and animal welfare’).
At school we had been taught to write letters for Amnesty International every week, to stand up for human rights. I was always very keen on a ‘fair’ world. When I volunteered in Swaziland after school, some of that time was spent visiting a childrens’ ward and that reaffirmed my awareness that everyone is entitled to a fair chance in our world and we can support one another to achieve it.
Before I started working in TV - when I was 22 - I flew back to Swaziland to make my own fundraising documentaries for some of the children in Mbabane. (Having just read his autobiography, The Wah-Wah Diaries, I reached out to Richard E Grant on the off chance that he would have the time to advise me on filming in Swaziland. I was lucky enough to get some great advice from him. He also incredibly kindly offered to narrate the documentaries when I returned. I am still extremely grateful for his advice and support. He played a big part in raising much needed funds).
As Swaziland stuck in my heart (especially the memories of some of the children there who needed support) I threw a number of large fundraising events (large auctions hosted by wonderful, kind celebrities - like Jason Flemyng & Ben Miller - and massive extravaganzas with djs, bands, cage dancers, circus acts and even one very popular burlesque dancer) from 2007 - 2011, to raise funds to send out to the children's homes there and to fund further research into the situation there and how I could help more.
I made a few trips to Swaziland during 2004 - 2011 (I kept feeling called back to see if there was more that I could do) and during one visit I was approached by a small organisation who asked if I could help to build homes and create long term financial support for disabled youngsters there. I had no idea how to manage it and it has taken far longer than I ever expected to meet this request but thankfully I have now come up with a way to keep my promise, ironically thanks to my expansion into the rights of our planet, as a whole (I have called it, the Home Habitat Worldwide Scheme).
Once I was working in TV, I started in TV drama and then switched my career path to what I thought was my ideal media position: making human rights documentaries. It was in TV that I further honed skills that I had been utilising in my own projects - developing expertise - in drawing organisations & ideas & agendas together for collaboration & coordination, to manifest a common vision/programme goal. A lot of the documentary work was undercover (I didn’t do that bit, I just worked through all of the footage) so it was very revealing: it was daily life and war and extreme situations, without any glossy packaging. Those programmes were the foundation for all of my work now.
As I worked in human rights documentaries (and compared what I saw to how we humans as a society also treated our planet as a whole) all of the patterns of how we treat ourselves, other humans, our planet as a whole and all other creatures became increasingly evident to me. It was very obvious to me that we needed to start from scratch & be honest with ourselves, to respectfully co-exist with our planet as a whole. The week that my mother died, I had an experience that reaffirmed my hopes for a wild world, that you can read about HERE.
I launched a project to connect with communities and organisations around the UK during 2018/2019, partly to research raising funding for Swaziland and partly because I was increasingly interested in human/animal rights and relationships in the UK and how I might be able to play my small part to help us all to live in greater harmony. I travelled the UK in a specially designed campervan, run as an eco coffee shop and stall (I was funded by eco friendly sponsors whose products I promoted and sold as I travelled). My mother’s illness, passing away & then lock down shut down my campervan efforts but fortunately by January 2020 I already felt ready & prepared (and had lots of useful contacts) to launch Wildscaping Worldwide, which is a culmination not only of my ongoing fundraising for the home in Swaziland but also of my love for all species and my belief that every life deserves the same chance. WW is part of my commitment to a ‘Wild World’.
As part of researching/developing a way to fund (and sustain/maintain) homes and support for disabled youngsters in Swaziland, I have run a number of initial fundraising efforts and I have organised & hosted live and online Q&As with such kind and talented actors like Richard E Grant & Jason Flemyng as well as incredible inspirations like Olympian Leon Taylor, Sir Rannulph Fiennes, famous Composers, Kim & Alan, of Soho House Studios, Jools Holland, Singer/Songwriter Mila Falls, Publisher Emma Beswetherwick, Richard Pierson (founder of Headspace) & Adventurers Mark Beaumont & Sean Conway & Endurance Athlete, Mark Hines. These Q&As were also published via Kindle, in 'It Ain't Gospel.'
Finally, I still have some involvement in the TV industry as I continue to run on freelance contracts with some trusted production companies, sourcing and pitching planet loving, wildlife loving programming ideas.
[THESE ARE JUST SOME PICS FROM THE EARLIER MOMENTS IN MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE (AND SOME PICS OF THE PLANS THAT HAVE BEEN DRAWN UP BY AN ARCHITECT FOR HOMES FOR DISABLED YOUNGSTERS). THESE ARE THE MOMENTS & EXPERIENCES THAT LED TO 'WILDSCAPING WORLDWIDE' BEING LAUNCHED (AND ALL OF MY WILD EFFORTS). WHAT IS A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE? I THINK THAT OUR PLANET IS DESIGNED TO BE A LOVE STORY: THE GREATEST LOVE STORY WE COULD EVER IMAGINE.]
MY BACKGROUND