US inmates at a Florida jail are sewing cloth pouches for kangaroos and koalas orphaned by wildfires in Australia, even if animal care organizations there have enough of them for the time being.
The Seminole county sheriff’s office on Wednesday tweeted video showing two inmates working at sewing machines, stitching together what are called “joey pouches” for the orphaned marsupials.
The pouches are made from old uniforms, and “inmates making them learn a new skill they can use upon their release,” tweeted the sheriff’s office, which is located outside Orlando.
Australia’s unprecedented wildfires season has charred huge expanses of brush land, rainforests, and national parks killing an estimated billion or more wild animals, amid uproar over the Australian government’s response and policies on recognizing and dealing with the climate crisis.
Some hoping to help out from afar have been sewing pouches and sending them to Australia – so many, it turns out, that earlier this month an organization distributing the pouches said it was being “overwhelmed”.
“We are now receiving a great deal of parcels each week and we feel that we will have more than enough,” Wildcare Australia Inc announced on 18 January.
“As we have limited storage space, we would ask if you have not already started sewing pouches, that you please hold off on making any more until we distribute the pouches which we expect to arrive over the coming weeks,” the statement said.
“If you already have pouches sewn, please feel free to send them to us.”
Seminole sheriff’s spokesman Bob Kealing said the jail had been working with Wildcare Australia.
Inmates at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility are hard at work making “joey pouches” for marsupials orphaned due to the #AustralianBushfires. The pouches come from recycled material and inmates making them learn a new skill they can use upon their release. #AustraliaBurning pic.twitter.com/ycRk2oD1pX
— Seminole County S.O. (@SeminoleSO) January 29, 2020
“They’ve told us to finish the batch we’ve been working on and send them along,” Kealing said in an email. “From that point we’ll wait for if/when they say they need some more.”
