'I just can't sit around anymore': Tauranga vet raises thousands before flying to Australia

Vet Post's owner and vet Rebecca Penman has raised thousands for supplies and will head to Australia next week. Photo / Andrew Warner

With thousands of dollars worth of supplies already bought and donations continuing to flow, a Tauranga vet will be making her way to Australia next week to do what she can to help.

On Tuesday, Vet Post's owner and vet Rebecca Penman created a donation page online to allow people to donate money so she could buy supplies needed to help the animals injured and endangered in the Australian fires.

This was in response to the initiative started by Auckland vet Vanessa Veart-Smith for donations of supplies when she realised some may only be able to donate money.

In two days the page has already raised over $13,000, overwhelmingly more than the couple of thousand dollars Penman expected.

"We've gone and purchased all sorts of supplies, from bandages, gloves, syringes ... all that kind of stuff," she said.

A total of $12,000-worth of supplies would be sent through to Veart-Smith's container.

"Any funds we get from now on are going to go directly to stuff there."

Penman has set up an account with a supplier in Australia and supplies would be purchased as needed on the front-line.

She will fly to Melbourne next Tuesday, at the latest, with another vet from Auckland and pick up a ute from her mother's property.

"I'm going there to help but the reality is there are so many animals that have just perished ... it's going to be a lot of helping to rebuild habitats and enclosures and help supply food.

"The effects are just devastating ... I just can't sit around anymore."

The donation page she set up will remain open and the money would be put towards whatever was the greatest need at the time in Victoria.

Penman had originally posted online the practice's bank account number before they realised how generous the donations would be.

An official donation page is being set up on Facebook and is in the process of being approved. The public would be able to keep up with everything this way, she said.

Bay of Plenty businesses to make orders/donations through:

- Vet Post, Greerton
- Bayfair Vets, Mount Maunganui
- Pyes Pa Pet Lodge, Pyes Pa
- VetCare Cherrywood and VetCare Bethlehem
- Champions Equestrian Supplies, Rotorua
- Saddlery Warehouse, Tauranga