Police are investigating an abusive phone call after the person receiving it collapsed and was sent to hospital twice.
Paula Powers was hit with a bombardment of abuse after she took a phone call from an anonymous person accusing her charity of being fraudulent.
The co-founder of Twinnies Pelican and Seabird Rescue in Queensland, Australia, suffered heart complications and was hospitalised twice in less than two days.
The abusive phone call came at a difficult time for Paula, as her charity has been up against things financially and has been appealing for funds.
After the landlord announced plans to sell, the charity is desperately looking for new headquarters or to raise to funds to stay where they are.
In an angry statement on Facebook, the charity slammed "armchair experts" and said: "To the coward who just verbally attacked Paula on the phone. I hope you are happy.
"Paula has been admitted to SCUH (Sunshine Coast University Hospital). These girls work seven days a week, full days and often nights as well. They are not scamming anyone.
"It is not easy dedicating your life day and night to the welfare of the birds."
Police have said that the person responsible for the call may be charged and they are investigating the matter.
Paula is an identical twin to her sister Bridget and the famous pair is known for their dedication to birds.
In 2016, they joked they never have time to date as they "give all our love to the wildlife".
Describing the moment Paula collapsed, Bridget said to the ABC: "She collapsed because she got this foul, foul woman on the phone, just abusing her saying we're scammers, we're frauds, you're taking people's money and she just kept going on and on like that."
The charity has operated for the last 22 years and has become steadily more opoular. They now require the equivalent of £57,000 to stay open as "to re-locate would just be too hard."
Twinnies revealed: "It's serious and to be honest, if we can't raise the funds we will probably have to close. Our rent has increased significantly over the last little which places us in this situation.
"We've been thinking about what our other options are and to be honest, we've come to the conclusion that this is our base and it would be too hard to relocate all the pelicans and birds. We've built the infrastructure, the know-how here."
