It may sound strange that animal groups are trying to collect women’s underwear, but that’s the crazy-but-true solution rescuers have developed. The clasps in everyday bras can be used to save turtles whose shells have been cracked.
It’s the surprising strategy that has the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue, in Indian Trail, North Carolina, going viral with their recent call for donations.
“It acts like a little fixator,” Keenan Freitas at the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue tells WBTV. “It’s the eyelets that we need.”
The idea has been utilized by several wildlife organizations, including Central MS Turtle Rescue and Wildthunder Wildlife. A turtle’s cracked shell can be repaired with wire, fastened by the bra clips.
“You basically wire the shell back together,” Freitas says. “It’s just these little ingenious things that people have created in the past, that we can use today to help animals out.”
Freitas says that injured turtles are a common occurrence, especially when it rains and the turtles travel to mate and find themselves in trouble: “80 percent of them are hit by cars,” he told WBTV. “The other five percent are hit by boats, the remaining are environmental.”
The Carolina Waterfowl Rescue post has attracted attention, with 1.5 thousand shares, nearly $500 in donations and many users promising to send their clasps. To be clear, the organization doesn’t need whole bras, just the clasps. They clarify that if you have a new, wearable bra that you don’t need, you’d be better off donating it to a thrift store or shelter.
You can also order the clips on Amazon. But if you happen to have an old bra lying around ready to be thrown out, why not recycle it for a good cause?
“You can recycle something that would go into a landfill,” Freitas told WBTV. “And I mean, they’re helping a turtle. Who wouldn’t want to help a turtle?”
In fact, the campaign was so successful that Carolina Waterfowl Rescue now has more clasps than it can handle. They wrote in a July 2 Facebook post that they’ve been overwhelmed with requests, and now hope that people interested in the story simply make a much-needed donation in lieu of mailing bra clasps.
“Please just donate the money you planned to spend on shipping,” the rescue wrote. “If everyone did this the turtles would never want for anything again.”
The story is a reminder of the important work rescue organizations are doing every day, and the small ways you can get involved.
Maybe you don’t happen to have a bra clasp ready do donate (if you do, it’s worth doing some research to see if it could be of use to your local rescue. They’re pretty set in Carolina though) but there are always little ways you can help animals in need, even if it’s making a small donation to a rescue.
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