25th Anniversary of the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation

2025 marks the 25th Annivesary of  The Pollyanna Pickering Foundation which raises funds and campaigns for conservation and animal welfare worldwide.

For fifteen years, Pollyanna and Anna-Louise ran a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation sanctuary from their home in Derbyshire, caring for and re-releasing hundreds of orphaned and injured wild creatures.  The hospital was funded entirely by Pollyanna through sales of her work. Eventually their increasing travels and demands on Pollyanna’s time meant they had to make the difficult decision to close. However Pollyanna always believed that she had the best job in the world and that it was a privilege to make her living from painting the birds and animals she loved. In 2000 she established the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation to continue her dedication to working for the welfare of wildlife.

Pollyanna’s original idea was to raise funds to purchase equipment to help British wildlife centres  carrying out similar work to that of her sanctuary – and the first projects built artificial badger tunnels and setts to assist in the rehabilitation of orphaned badger cubs in Northumberland and purchased an incubator and runs for a hedgehog hospital in Derbyshire.

However the Foundation’s scope soon widened to raise funds for the protection and rescue of wildlife worldwide. Funds have been raised to help protect Rhinos in Africa, Wolves in Ethiopia, orphaned polar bears in the arctic, and to help build a tiger orphanage in Nepal. We have funded construction of enclosures at Born Free’s big cat sanctuaries in South Africa and Ethiopia. Equipment has been purchased for project tiger rangers working in India, and many smaller grants have been made to wildlife and environmental projects. Through our exclusive friendship programmes, we have supported a wild cheetah relocation programme in South Africa, and the care of Giant Pandas in China. The Foundation never forgets the individual animal – we have helped fund the rescue of lions from a Romanian Zoo and their subsequent transfer to the Born Free sanctuary in South Africa. ‘Polly Bear’ is an Asiatic Moonbear previously used in the unspeakably crue

The unexpected and heart-breaking loss of Pollyanna in 2018 left Anna-Louise and the board of trustees determined to continue her legacy as an indefatigable campaigner for the welfare of endangered, sick and vulnerable creatures. In 2019 three special memorial projects were funded – a unit to help rehabilitate orphaned otter cubs on Skye, a purpose built enclosure to house juvenile hedgehogs in Surrey, and the purchase of two motion sensor cameras to help the Snow Leopard Trust protect these highly endangered big cats in the Himalayas.

Like the majority of projects we fund, all of these fit our main criteria – they are cost-effective, of both immediate and long tem benefit to wildlife, and can be expected to be in use for a minimum of ten years – and usually longer. We have carried this ethos forward to fund the creation of a ‘shock-free zone’ in Costa Rica – insulating transformers to prevent the electrocution of wildlife – , provided equipment to fight wildfires in the Pantanal region of Brazil, built ‘beehive’ fences to protect elephants in Kenya  and renovated the cheetah encloses at Enessa Kotteh sanctuary in Ethiopia. We have also continued in Pollyanna’s original aim to help British wildlife by building aviaries, and enclosures at a wildlife sanctuary in Chichester, helped to fund a new wildlife hospital for Wildlife Aid, and built a brand new bat rehabilitation flight in Surrey. Our work will of course continue with the anniversary exhibition raising funds to rebuild the quarantine centre at The Orang Utan Haven in Sumatra. (More details on page 9.)

“Pollyanna inspired so many people through her talent, her compassion and her genuine love for wildlife and the incredible world we inhabit.  Although our foundation is small in global terms through the careful selection of projects and targeting of funds we have been able to make a real difference to the lives of some individual animals, as well as contribute to the conservation of entire species in the wild. My grateful thanks go to everyone who continues to support our work. I am honoured to continue Pollyanna’s vision into the future.”                                                                                                                                                                                            3                                                                                                        Anna-Louise Pickering, President