Unfortunately at this time of year rabbits and pets get such a raw deal.  Many people simply want to get rid of their childrens animals just before Christmas to make way for the new toys. The animals that were impulsively bought during the lovely Summer months on a whim at a newly opened pet superstore not far from here are simply cast out as the boredom of owning an animal sets in.  With the cold weather and defrosting of water bottles many pet owners can’t be bothered with the unloved rabbit at the bottom of the garden kept in the 2ft hutch on its own. It makes our blood boil but as ever we are taking in a lot of rabbits at the moment.  If you can give a loving home to a rabbit then please, please DO NOT go to the large green and yellow pet supermarket and buy a baby bunny.  Come to a rescue centre where you will be able to adopt a neutered, vaccinated bunny whose temperament and health has been assessed, a bunny that is in desperate need of a new home.  We are a rescue centre whose main aim IS NOT PROFIT and MONEY but ANIMAL WELFARE and REHOMING ANIMALS.  We do carry out home checks for all of our animals and we use the opportunity to offer advice on rabbit keeping and diet as well as health issues and bonding rabbits.  We are currently vaccinating, neutering and assessing a lot of bunnies which all takes a huge amount of time.  We also have bunnies waiting to come in.

We have rescued 80 ex-battery chickens this week, taking our total for the year to over 400. These poor girls live an awful life, in extremely cramped cages, each hen has no more space than an A4 piece of paper.

The flock is usually sent for slaughter at 12 to 18 months and replaced with new hens to keep egg production as high as possible. We rescue some from slaughter and find them life-long loving home.

If you can offer 2 or more hens a home, please get in touch while we have some and give a hen a happy home for Christmas. 

We don’t often rescue birds of prey, but when we do we are amazed by their beauty. This guy we believe has been handled and kept in a very small cage where he could not fly. Therefore he has little muscle tone and cannot currently be released into the wild.

Now in an aviary, we will have minimal contact with him so as not to get him tame, and we will allow him to fly and build up his strength so that we can assess him and what him progress.

It is always our intention to release wild animals back into he wild where they belong. We will assess this buzzard and only release him when he has a high chance of survival.

However when we heard about this poor girl and saw the condition that she was in, we had to do what we could to help get her out of the squalid, muddy conditions that she was kept in.

Her previous owner moved house and left a neighbour to care for her for a few days. Months later he had not shown up and although the neighbour did what he could, he had only agreed to help out for a few days.

We are now looking asking for donations to help us, we need to build her a new home and fencing to give her plenty of room.

Currently she isn’t in good shape, she is overweight from little exercise and poor diet, she also has laboured breathing.

Can you suggest a name for her?

Can you make a small donation to help us care for her? If you can please click on the link below;

http://brinsleyanimalrescue.org/financial-support/

This is where she lived, up to her belly in mud.

click on Image to enlarge

These two are weaned off their mother but are too small for this time of year. They need to be above 500 grams to survive hibernation, otherwise they will perish. It is likely that these two will have to be kept with us until the spring when we will release them.

We always try to release hogs where they were found, wherever there are hedgehogs there is food.

 

If you want to encourage hedgehogs into your garden then here are a few simple things you can do:

A log pile will create a great damp area where a hedgehog will be able to find food like slugs and beetles. 

Lots of ground coverage and plants will also be a great haven for a hedgehog to snuffle round in and find food.

Feeding hedgehogs – tinned cat and dog meat or Spikes Hedgehog food.   DO NOT feed a hedgehog bread and milk and DO NOT feed a hedgehog gravy based dog/cat food.

Leave water out for your hedgehog.  When we haven’t had any rain for a while many hedgehogs come to us completely dehydrated. Remember to leave it in a heavy bowl as hedgehogs are very good at tipping up bowls in search of tasty treats underneath.

Provide an area that hedgehogs might be able to nest or hibernate.  Hedgehogs retreat during the day and make themselves obscure by making a nest. You could buy a specially designed hedgehog hibernator from a fabulous local company! http://www.worm.co.uk/default.asp?mode=viewTree&nodeId=79&divId=middlenode79

By encouraging other types of wildlife to your garden you will increase your chances of encouraging a hedgehog.  If you exterminate and poison other creatures in your garden then the chances are you will also poison a hedgehog. Most poisons like metaldehyde (found in slug pellets) and warfarin (in rat and mouse poison) will also kill a hedgehog slowly and callously.

Hedgehogs are charming little creatures to have around your garden and do no end of pest control for you the way nature intended. 

Following a trip to the vets to have the hook removed, it is now recuperating in a pen on antibiotics and painkillers.

Update 1 September

Yesterday we released this Mute swan back where it came from. We carried it to the lake and fortunately found its partner. A crowd gathered and it was a tear jerking moment as the two were reunited with each other.

Swans mate for life, so we were really chuffed to see the two back together.

Click on Images to Enlarge

Swan being released, its partner eagerly watching.

The Swan takes the plunge after a week in our care.

So happy to see each other again.

Update 20 September

This chap was finally released into nearby woods.

Today we rescued another 100 battery hens. We had hoped to rescue at least 200 however we have been limited, thankfully because they have homes.

Battery hens, just like free range hens are set for slaughter at only 18 months old, the 100 we have taken on have been spared being turned into pet food, they will be rehomed and with live the rest of their natural life.

If you are on our waiting list, please be patient as we catch up with the home checks.

We agreed to take on these three to add to our growing pig collection, now at 11.

Unfortunately the female is pregnant so our collection of pigs needing homes will continue to grow!

After eating puppy food and lapping up loads of rehydration fluid, the cub has made a great start to recovery.

Update - This little girl has now been moved on tho the Little Fox Project in Oxford. This organisation specialising in putting cubs of similar age together, preparing them for release back into the wild. A happy ending.