As well as all of the normal tasks like feeding, checking and cleaning  all of the animals, its a non stop battle to keep the animals with fresh unfrozen water. All of the rabbits water bottles and animals drinkers have to be defrosted twice a day.

When the ground is frozen, there’s nothing for the horses, ponies, sheep and Boris the bull to eat, so we consume huge amounts of very expensive hay.

On a week day when we are working, its a very early and very cold start to get all of the animals sorted in time to travel off to work, when we return, it starts all over again.

We have been working very hard raising the funds for this vital work, now with £8,000 raised so far, we are able to start the first stage.

Now the the garage has been divided up into two main rooms and a store, the electrician has first fixed the wiring. This week the installation of the doors and windows was completed. Thanks to Acorn Windows who offered us a discount, helping the charities money go further.

We still need another £5,000 to complete the works, once finished we will have an amazing first class facility for the diagnosis and treatment of wild animals, as well as for rearing orphaned baby birds and mammals..

If you can help us by making a financial donation, please click on the link below, without support from the public, we can not carry out this vital work.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE ON LINE OR;

Or Send a cheque payable to Brinsley Animal Rescue to;

69 Hobsic Close

Brinsley

Nottingham

NG16 5AX

Our thanks go to;

Acorn Windows of Wolloton Nottingham have very kindly offered to supply the windows and doors for our hospital at costs and fitted free, we are extremely grateful which means the charities funds will go further.

243 Trowell Road

Wolloton

Nottingham

NG8 2EP

(0115) 9287984

The term ‘breeding like rabbits’ has a lot of truth! Sadly by the time many people have realised this it is far too late.  A female rabbit has the ability to become pregnant again straight after she has given birth.  The gestation of a rabbit is only approximately 30 days so perhaps you can see the problem that arises time and time again when rabbits are wrongly sexed. Rabbits are notoriously difficult to sex and many pet shops get it wrong.  More often than not that pet shop is PETS AT HOME.  We have had yet another call today of them WRONGLY SEXING RABBITS and the caller had ended up with not only an unwanted litter but a pregnant doe straight away.  If this pet shop can’t sex animals properly then they SHOULDN’T BE SELLING THEM! This is the second call this week where this chain store has wrongly sexed rabbits.  We thought after meeting with one of their directors things were improving but sadly not.  They still give terrible advice on neutering, diet and still sell living accommodation that is not fit for purpose.

We have a LOT of bunnies all needing good homes.  At Brinsley Animal Rescue we rehome our bunnies responsibly.  We neuter, vaccinate for myxi (there are wild rabbits with myximitosis around at the moment so ALL rabbits should be vaccinated against this dreadful disease as a matter of urgency). We also carry out home checks to make sure our bunnies are going to fabulous homes.

We do ask for minimum donations to try and cover our costs.

Female spayed and myxi vaccinated £60 each

Male neutered and myxi vaccinated £55 each

Pair or trio of  neutered and myxi vaccinated bunnies £75.

As you can see we offer a huge saving for adopters as neutering a male rabbit is approx £55 and spaying a female is approx £70.  Vaccinating is approx £15-£20.  We also give a huge saving for those adopting pairs of bunnies as so many of our already bonded beautiful pairs get overlooked.

We do have far more bunnies than feature on our website because each bunny has a minimum of 4 weeks here whilst they are neutered, vaccinated and some females that could potentially be pregnant have 30 days to wait so that we can make sure they aren’t pregnant.

PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T SUPPORT PET SHOPS THAT SELL ANIMALS. THERE ARE SO MANY ANIMALS IN RESCUE CENTRES THAT DESERVE A GOOD HOME.

The local villagers were obviously concerned when he hadn’t left after a week, and tried to call the RSPCA with little response. Eventually we received a call, how could we not try and help?

After a few days with us to assess his health, we gave him the all clear today and then released him, in a location with other single swans where he’ll hopefully find a partner.

In the year, we have admitted 857 animals, a full breakdown of all animals can be found on our website, in summary these are;

• We took in 131 pets and re-homed 89 into life-long homes
• Cared for 488 farm animals, including over 300 ex- battery chickens destined for slaughter
• We rescued 7 ponies and a horse, re-homing 4 of them
• We have taken in 4 pigs and re-homed 7
• Taken in 239 wild animals (169 birds and 70 mammals). Of these over 100 have been released back into the wild

We are always full at the sanctuary, unfortunately we turn animals away every day of the week. In our care we have;

• 9 Pigs
• 6 ponies
• 1 horse
• 1 bull
• 6 Sheep
• 4 geese
• 100+ chickens & 12 Cockerels
• 5 hedgehogs
• 30 wild birds
• 31 rabbits
• 4 Ducks
• 2 mice

Successes

• We have had two successful open days, with over 1600 visiting us and raising over £7,000
• The Charity Shop Expectations opened, raising over £4,000 for us
• We received planning permission to build a wild animal hospital

Highlights

January

We were on BBC1 Inside Out, covering the trend of so called `Micro-Pigs’ and the resultant escalation in people wanting to give them up. This year hardly a week has gone by without us receiving a call to take on more. In fact in November, we received requests to take on 14 in one week alone! Every one was turned down, we can only do so much.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/01/26/24-jan-at-730-pm-see-our-pig-rescue-on-bbc1-inside-out/

February

Gerard and Walter, two Pot Bellied pigs that had been with us for three years, had finally been re-homed.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/02/13/gerard-walter-move-to-their-new-home/

March

We rescued another 3 Dartmoor Ponies destined to be slaughtered for pet food. All three were wormed, vaccinated, gelded and slowly turned into tame ponies before being rehomed.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/03/19/urgent-dartmoor-pony-appeal/

April

We took in three fox cubs in April that were hand reared and 2 were later released in the Autumn.  Although animal rescue brings many highs there are also many, many lows and Daisy the fox cub was no exception.  She came in as a tiny fox cub and our trustee and vet nurse Keyley took her on when it became apparent that Daisy did not interact with the other cubs and had neuroligical problems.  Keyley spent hours and hours nursing Daisy and hand rearing her but eventually had to make the heart wrenching decision to put Daisy to sleep.

May

We rescued ex-battery hen number 200.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/05/21/battery-hen-rescue-5/

June

We were busy hand rearing dozens of animals, including this little hoglet.  The hand rearing season runs from February through to September and seems to get longer and more demanding every year.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/06/08/baby-hoglets/

July

During a 3 hour rescue, the Fire Brigade helped us release this huge hedgehog that had fallen into an open pipe and trapped for several days. We treated him for dehydration and released him a few weeks later in a safer place.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/07/10/epic-hedgehog-rescue/

August

We took in more kittens and cats (11 kittens and two cats), some were actually dumped on our doors step, whilst we were at work! Although our planning permission does not permit us to take in cats we know that cat rescue centres were absolutely full to capacity with huge waiting lists so we had no choice but to get the latest waifs and strays combi-tested, wormed, vaccinated, microchipped and neutered.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/08/21/kittens-kittens-kittens/

October

We rescued Shaunie the lamb, he was born with a deformed leg, he will now never see a slaughterhouse, but live life to the full.

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/2011/10/30/shaunie-our-rescue-disabled-ram/

November

Our Winter Open Day was a great success, we hope to see you at our next open day on 12 August 2012.

Santa and his elf made a special appearance and the rain seemed to hold off. We have managed to raise nearly £2,500 during the day and we met lots of lovely people.

We absolutely cannot continue to run the charity without raising vital funds like this.  Holding open days and fund raisers takes an awful lot of work and coordination and this morning when we saw the weather we were worried that people simply wouldn’t turn up. We are overwhelmed by the support that we have had and the distance that some people had travelled.  A massive thank you to everyone!

Hopefully we’ll see you at the big Summer Open day on 12 August 2012.

Visitors watch a video display of BAR achievements

Runaway Rocky is enticed back through the gate by his favourite, bananas.

Identify the bird to which each egg belongs.

Micro-pigs are not a recognised breed, in fact many people have been miss sold these animals, thinking that they will remain small. These so called “Tea Cup Pigs” often grow into a pig larger than the average Labrador, but many times more powerful.

The reality is that, these inter-bred animals often do grow large, even the smallest pigs if not looked after correctly, by keeping them in social groups and providing them with stimulation, can very quickly destroy your home and garden and even become nasty through frustration and boredom.

In the past week alone, we have been asked to take on 15 pigs, some of which are the so called micro-pigs. We cannot possiblyrescue them all, but these are 4 boys we have managed to rescue.

If you can offer a life-long loving home for a pair of pigs, please let us know, we are aware of several of these beautiful animals that will be euthanised if we cannot find them homes.

Although Shaunie has half of his rear right leg missing from birth, he is a very capable ram and his birth defect has saved his life. Shaunie is this years lamb, but when it came to sending the lambs to market, he was left behind. We don’t mind, we love all animals, all animal are very special to us.

Shaunie did take a while to settle in, having come from a farm to a rescue sanctuary. He has now bonded with our other boys and girls and has become a real star.

Each year we work with some fantastic people who rescue around a hundred annually. The lucky rescued ponies become pampered pets or go to rescue centres around the country, to a better future where they will be loved and cared for, not eaten.

To date we have now rescued 9 Dartmoor ponies. We spend hundreds of hours turning them from wild ponies, into beautiful tame ponies that are rehomed as pets in  life-long homes.

These two will be no exception, we have already started working on taming them, but it will be many months before they will be tame enough and ready to be castrated, wormed and ready for a new home.

Meet Joe and Charlie the new boys, they are very, very cute!

Today was a big day for 2 little foxes we have hand reared.  One of the foxes came in with awful mange and had ongoing treatment for 9 weeks!  We have really struggled to find a suitable site for these foxes be released at.  Other sanctuaries are also having difficulty finding suitable sites.  Thanks to a very kind couple we have set up a temporary pen in their garden where they will be fed for a few nights before eventually being allowed to go as they please.  This form of release is called ‘soft release’ and means that the animals will be fed and have continuous access to food until they can fend for themselves.  There are plenty of sources of food at the site and an amazing nature reserve for them to spend the rest of their lives.

If you know of a potential release site for future foxes then please get in touch as we have had such difficulty trying to find somewhere for this beautiful pair.  It is very sad that some people choose to kill these amazing animals in the name of sport and thanks to this country’s slack laws, continue to do so illegally!  Foxes are such stunning creatures and it has been so rewarding to have known these two.

Friends of Brinsley Animal Rescue, with the support of Babbington Rescue,  have drawn up the petition below to request council leaders to bring to focus the issue of responsible pet care. Currently Council websites and literature do not even mention the importance or benefits of neutering, so the public remain uneducated about the situation and the councils seem reluctant to get involved. So far we have gained 500 hand written signatories. We are aiming to reach 1000 so we can bring this vital issue into the public domain by showing the strength of public feeling, both at the suffering of the animals and at the cost to the tax payer. We need to make sure that every pet owner is aware of the necessity to neuter and that councils include this advice in all of their relevant literature and in the education services they provide. Anyone interested in joining this campaign can sign in person at Babbington Rescue, Awsworth. In addition you could write to your council and express your concern – do not forget to ask for a reply.

The petition reads as below:

We, the undersigned, are calling on Nottinghamshire councils to encourage responsible pet care by actively promoting neutering through incentives, publicity and education and discouraging breeding, so that residents are left in no doubt that they are expected to neuter any pets they own.

By completing the form below we can add your signature to the petition for you. Alternatively, print out this document, complete it and then post to us.

[1] Upton et. al. (2010) Dog licensing and registration in the UK. Reading University. (Report commissioned by the RSPCA can be found at: http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232721594783&mode=stg)

Each month they chose 4 animal charities, each will recive at least £1,500 if the get at least 100 votes, second place gets £3,500 and first £5,000.

Unlike many other charities, we have very low overheads as the charity is run by volunteers, so if we were to win £5,000 it would go a long way.

Please click on the link below, LIKE the page, go to VOTE FOR A CHARITY and vote for Brinsley Animal Rescue, please email your friends to vote for us and share us on Face Book.

http://www.facebook.com/FeelGoodPark

Thank you for your support.

Although the doors officially opened at 11am, there was a steady queue forming by 10:30 and people were still around at 5pm, even though the bar had sold out by 3pm and Veggies the vegan caterers sold out not much later.



Battery hens, just like free range hens, are sent for slaughter at around 18 months old, they are replaced with younger hens to keep farms’ egg production rates high.

The 175 we have taken on have been spared being turned into pet food; they will be rehomed and will live the rest of their natural life in loving homes.

If you want to adopt some ex-battery hens, please get in touch with us. Ex-battery hens make very good pets, are easy to look after and all have their own character.