A butcher and a wildlife carer might seem like an odd pairing.

Key points: A WA couple are among the few wildlife carers operating in the Kimberley region

A WA couple are among the few wildlife carers operating in the Kimberley region Heidi Sampey's husband, Ray, is the local butcher, but also acts as a handyman for her sanctuary

Heidi Sampey's husband, Ray, is the local butcher, but also acts as a handyman for her sanctuary They say the joint endeavour isn't as strange as it may sound

But in Western Australia's remote north-west, this combination is working wonders.

Nestled in bushland just out of town, Derby Wildlife Sanctuary is an oasis for injured and orphaned wildlife from all over the western Kimberley.

Here, Heidi Sampey will take in any animal in need.

Her husband Ray, who is also the local butcher, is often on hand to help.

"I love my bats, absolutely, [they're] one of my favourites, wallabies, kangaroos, crocodiles, birds, lizards, frilled-neck lizards," Ms Sampey said.

Ms Sampey checks out Pearl, an agile wallaby joey whose mother was killed on the road. ( ABC News: Rachel Carbonell )

"So pretty much anything."

Right now the residents of the sanctuary include six agile wallabies, nine kangaroos and one possum.

From far and wide

Ray Sampey made this gadget that enables multiple joeys to feed at the same time. ( Supplied )

There are only a handful of wildlife carers covering the whole of the Kimberley and the remote location poses particular challenges.

"That little fella is called Chopper," Ms Sampey said, pointing to a red kangaroo joey which is sniffing at our legs.

"He spent three hours in a chopper to get here … he was quite traumatised," she said.

While most animals are brought into the sanctuary, the family butcher shop in town sometimes serves as a handover point.

"People often drop the animals off at the butcher shop, so it's quite ironic really," Ms Sampey said.

"Often [if I'm] working in the shop someone will bring me a bird or a wallaby or something.

"In Derby, it's just been an automatic thing."

Ethical balance

So how does Ms Sampey reconcile saving these animals with making a living from other animals for food?

"I have no problem with animals being killed for food if it's done humanely and correctly," she said.

"It's the suffering that I really am against."

Ray Sampey might be the local butcher, but he's also the sanctuary's builder and all-round Mr Fix It.

Chopper was named after the long helicopter flight he took to reach the sanctuary. ( ABC News: Rachel Carbonell )

"I'm basically manual labour out here, so if she wants something built, that's what I do," he said.

The sanctuary boasts an indoor/outdoor nursery, a range of enclosures with tall fences, and shade and water features which allow the animals to graduate from smaller safer spaces to bigger, wilder ones as they rehabilitate.

"That's my amazing husband," Ms Sampey said.

"Most of this stuff is all second-hand that we've got from the tip, and we've taken down people's old fences and re-erected them here."

Team effort

Ray Sampey holds Bob, a rescued freshwater crocodile. ( Supplied )

While Mr Sampey will happily have you believe he's just about the nuts and bolts, he admits he also helps with the caring side of things to give his wife a break.

Infant animals need to be fed every few hours around the clock.

"I'll get up in the morning, let's say 4:30, 5 o'clock, and do a round for her, feed all the joeys," he said.

"That happens maybe twice a week if I'm not working."

Ms Sampey said access to veterinary care was one of the other big challenges out here.

"We are quite isolated with help medical help here for animals," she said.

"We have no vet here … no-one else is going to help them here unfortunately — we're it."

The Broome vet provides telephone advice and visits Derby once a week.

But that means Ms Sampey often has to provide critical veterinary care herself, until a vet can make a special trip.

Critical care

The humidicrib was donated to help keep the smallest and most vulnerable joeys alive. ( ABC News: Rachel Carbonell )

The sanctuary has a critter care room that looks and feels a lot like a veterinary clinic. Here, Ms Sampey can administer medication and fluids.

There is also an old but functioning humidicrib for the tiny "pinky" joeys that come in.

"They have to be kept at a certain temperature … if they don't have that, their skin dries out," she said.

"They just can't continue living because all their energy goes into keeping warm.

"So it's very intensive care."

Lucky enough

Running a wildlife rescue operation is done on a voluntary basis. The infrastructure, the medication and the food are all costly.

While the Sampeys receive some donations and support from wildlife care organisations, the rest is self-funded.

Those funds comes from the family butcher shop business.

"One pays for the other," Mr Sampey said.

"We own a butcher shop, so we sell a lot of meat.

"We're lucky enough to sell a lot of game meat — a lot of the clientele up here like that sort of thing."

Ray Sampey owns the Derby butcher shop. ( ABC News: Christopher Meldrum )

That includes emu, crocodile and kangaroo meat.

But he said it was all from official, ethical sources.

"People need meat in their diet, so selling that crocodile burger or kangaroo tail or a lamb chop is no different to us — what we're doing is selling a product," Mr Sampey said.

"I've been a butcher since 13 … I think as long as the meat has been processed correctly, then it doesn't matter what you're selling."

Nothing from the sanctuary ends up in the butcher shop window, or on the plate.

"It's completely separate, completely different," Mr Sampey said.

"What Heidi is doing — she has a passion and is caring for young animals."

Arnold the red kangaroo is close buddies with Jack the agile wallaby. ( ABC News: Rachel Carbonell )

For the love of it

The Sampeys run the Derby Wildlife Sanctuary. ( Supplied )

Mr Sampey said he would describe himself as an animal lover.

"I would say I'm pretty normal," he said.

"As a child, I grew up hunting.

"I don't go out and shoot too many animals nowadays — if the rifle comes out, it's to euthanise an animal."

As a meat lover, Mr Sampey is particularly partial to kangaroo.

"I love it, I do," he said.

"But I don't eat any of the 'roos that we grow up here, I can assure you."

Sampey Meats sources it kangaroo from regulated sources down south.

"We do make a pretty good kangaroo jerky, but we don't use the kangaroos from here," Mr Sampey said.

"I don't think Heidi would like that."

A different way

It is not as strange as it sounds, Ms Sampey says.

"I look at it in a very different way to most people," she said.

"I often say to people, 'do you eat meat? Have you ever bought meat? Have you ever sold meat? Have you ever rescued an animal?' And everyone says yes to one or all of those questions."

Ms Sampey is not a vegetarian, but she says she doesn't eat a lot of red meat. And she does not eat kangaroo.

"I don't like it. I have tasted it [and] emu, everything else," she said.

"I'm not here to change the world, I'm just here to help out the animals that need my help right now."