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.

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.

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.

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.

This poor guy had fallen down a 10cm open pipe and in his struggle to get out, had become completely trapped between two water pipes and the outer pipe section.

When we arrived, we could touch the hog, we could see he was still alive but he was completely stuck, we couldn’t get him out as he was without hurting him, which we had to avoid. Over the next three hours we slowly cut away the pipe and dug down around it, to give him more space and free him off.

In the end, we called the fire brigade to see if they could help. Thankfully after a bit of persuasion they sent a team that had small hacksaws and a dedication, they were as keen as we were to rescue the poor chap.

Finally after over three hours, he was free and Broxtowe Borough Council had turned up to fill the hole and make it safe. We took the guy back and put him in an incubator to warm up.

He is now doing well, he has eaten thankfully and looking much happier than he did, he is still very mucky though and needs treating for ringworm. He has gone through such an ordeal, we hope he will survive, so far so good.

She could not even stand, she was very weak and dehydrated. We started by warming her up in an incubator, then after a few hours and warm, we had to force feed her. We didn’t expect her to survive the night, but we were amazed to see her beady eyes watching us the next day.

Over the next few days she grew stronger and stronger, taking food off us readily. She now rips up her prey, eating everything including bones and feathers. Unlike other meat eating birds, birds of prey cannot be fed cat or dog meat, they require feathers and bones in their diet. We buy frozen day old cockerels, the waste bi-product of the egg industry, its not nice but in this case their is no alternative.

This little one is one of three being hand reared on milk formula at the moment, in a couple of weeks or so well start to wean off milk onto meat.

This time of year is really hard for us, trying to hold down full time jobs whilst animals turn up, sometimes hourly. Hand rearing them throughout the day and sometimes night is not easy, we have no social life.

Percy was originally an RSPCA case. Percy was found very thin and in poor health, his brother was also very ill and another boar was lying on the ground where he had died. Unfortunately Percy’s brother could not be saved but Percy was seized by the RSPCA and moved to a home where he could be cared for until moved to us.

Percy is around a year old, he is now fit and well and we are hoping to bond him with a female girlfriend. If you can offer Percy and his girlfriend a good home, please get in touch with us.

This condition is the symptom of something more serious, such as respiratory tract damage or a gas build up from a gangrenous wound. The balloon condition is caused by gas building up under the skin.

The first and foremost treatment we have applied is to release the gas, hedgehogs have been know to literally explode from a gas build up. We have achieved this by venting out the gas via a hypodermic syringe, we have now had to do this four times. The last venting was at midnight last night, this morning there has been no further build up and so we can move on to bring him back to health. As we do not know what the cause is, it is now antibiotics, anti-inflammatory painkillers and a waiting game.

This photograph was taken at midnight last night, just before we vented him for the last time. You can see the extent of the expansion of his body, the darker skin should actually be his  underside, here you can clearly see how expanded he is, so much that he could not roll up into a ball.

This little duckling was brought in by a cat, fortunately the owner retrieved her from the jaws and took the duckling to a vets before later bring her to us.

Cats mouths are very infectious so it’s lucky that this duckling got away with minor damage.

Here you can see her in our pond with another duck we rescued a month ago. The duckling thinks she’s a human so she needs to spend time with her own kind.

He is probably around four weeks old so still being fed on milk, our task will be to keep him warm and bottle feed on milk replacement.  Fox cubs do require a lot of attention, they are quite noisy particularly at night!

Slowly he can been weaned off milk onto puppy food. We always minimise our handling so that he will not get too imprinted and easier to release back into the wild.

In the past week, we have been asked to take on three litters and 10 adults, that’s almost as many rabbits as we re-home in an entire year! This is simply unsustainable, we can only take rabbits in as they go out and this is not very often.

Why do people insist on buying baby rabbits from pet shops and pet superstores when there are so many in rescue centres? Why is it that they then expect charities like us to take them off their hands when they have grown tired, bored or don’t want to pay vets bills?

This boy was one of several that were dumped at the side of a busy road, we found him (now called Willow) and another 2  were found later by other people. There were probably more from the litter that were never found. Unfortunately we hear far too often about people tossing out baby pet rabbits and unwanted adult rabbits into the wild, where they will certainly perish.

This boy was injured and petrified, so much so that he did not move when we found him but sat shaking with fear. Two weeks on, a course of anti-biotics and loads of love and attention and he’s doing well and slowly becoming tame.

Willow is the lucky one, thousands more are not so lucky.

Once more we find this sad situation. Yet again many young Dartmoor Ponies are facing slaughter as the unwanted ponies become animal feed. A century ago 30,000 of these ponies roamed the moors, now just 1,500 remain.  They are rarer than giant pandas yet get little coverage and media spotlight.  They are part of our heritage in this country yet fetch no money at market and simply get slaughtered every year for pet food and lion and tiger food at the local zoo.

This year 700 have already been slaughtered for pet food, how could we say no!  Last year taught us so, so much about these delightful animals.  Having recently seen the four ponies we rescued last year in their new homes, we have realised that we should offer a place for some more of these beautiful animals.

Today rescued 3 of these ponies as the situation became URGENT.  Brinsley Animal Rescue now needs the funds to pay for their up keep and treatment until we can re-home them. Are you able to help with donations towards transportation, gelding, feed, bedding and wormers ?

We need to raise at least £1200 to pay for these beautiful ponies.  Transportation costs alone comes to £300 before they even arrive at the sanctuary.  Every month we operate on a hand to mouth basis and scrape by.  Of recent we have taken in more and more animals whereby the previous owners simply couldn’t afford their vet bills and treatment.  We have taken on huge vet bills and added feed costs as the price of hay escalates to almost double what we were paying just a year ago.

PLEASE HELP US TO HELP MORE ANIMALS FIND A BETTER FUTURE.

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