**Update**

You can donate to help rehabilitate animals harmed by the wildfires here:

http://www.zoo.org.au/news/save_injured_wildlife

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Rescuing Baby Koalas and the Tragic Loss of Human Life

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make you cry.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090212-burned-koala-photo.html

And the audio link on this site is absolutely heartbreaking yet beautiful.  A good 5 minutes well-spent:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100714467&ft=1&f=1004

I desperately want to go rescue baby koalas from the wildfires of Australia.  I'd also love to go help rescue the people there, of course, but that's generally left to the experts.  I don't mean to minimize the tragic loss of human life by any means.  However, people, it seems, are usually the first to be taken care of in situations like this, and the poor, innocent animals often are left to fend for themselves.  If I could, I would go over there this minute to help.  On NPR's site comments, one person was outraged about how people focused on the koala story instead of hundreds of people dying.  I can feel the pain in that, yet it reminds me that as humans, death toll numbers are often so "far away" and surreal to us.  News stations often don't release the graphic details about people suffering that they might about the animals.  In the audio clip, the reporter didn't say a whole lot about details regarding the people, other than that whole towns have been incinerated by the wildfires and that folks, instead of saying "See ya later" are hugging and telling everyone to "Be safe."  Which is incredibly tragic.  However, hearing about koalas desperately hunting for water and walking around scorched forest floors on burnt paws gives such a vivid visual picture.  Maybe the visual picture is what made people respond to that story more.  Maybe the fact that it was unusual.  Maybe people are deeply uncomfortable with their own mortality and therefore choose to focus more of the plight of animals than the tragedy of 200 human deaths.

I contacted the animal sanctuary to see where would be a good place to donate to help animals injured by the fires.  If they send me any more information on that, I'll post it.  And I'm trying to find a site accepting donations to help people--if you find one, please let me know.