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Please remember that it is possible to help any of these animals by adopting them for a year of their life, which makes a valuable contribution towards their care. If you would like to adopt an animal please take this link to our adoption page.
FOXES
DONUT
(Resident
at The Sanctuary since 1999)
It is with great sadness that we must tell you that Donut died on Friday 15th August. We believe she had died quietly in her sleep as she was found that morning in her little house.
Donut had been a popular character at The Sanctuary
ever since she arrived and was well She was brought to us in 1999 following a telephone call from a lady saying “ I’ve just been out in the woods and a fox has just jumped into my Land Rover. Can you take it at the The Sanctuary ? You won’t put it to sleep will you ?”
We feel that this is a likely story!
As soon as we met Donut, we
She was one of the stars of our "Wild" children's parties and many children were thrilled to go into her enclosure and actually meet her and she was very pleased to see them, especially if they had jam doughnuts on offer!
Donut will always have a very special place in our hearts.
The moral here is - "Leave well alone"!
With so many wildlife and animal hospital programmes on TV, some people try to hand rear cute young animals themselves at home and “imprint” or tame them by treating them as pets. Taming a wild animal is the worst thing to do because it can never be released back into the wild. It has lost its natural fear of man and will therefore be far more likely to be killed. The Sanctuary has had to take in so many animals over the years that have been hand-reared as pets and then novelty wore off or people did not have suitable facilities to house them. A life in captivity at a sanctuary is a poor alternative to life in the wild but there is no option for an imprinted animal – except euthanasia.
SAM
Sam was taken into care by The Sanctuary in the summer of 2004. A vet from Hexham contacted us and asked if we could accommodate a fox that would be a permanent resident due to the extent of it’s injuries, having been hit by a car. The jaw was so severely broken it would never be able to hunt itself again. As you can see from this photograph, he looks a little less than handsome, but he is alive and happily eats tinned dog food which he can manage very nicely thank you and he is just the sweetest, gentlest animal. When the vet telephoned, he said said it was a vixen so “she” was named “Samantha Fox”. Except she is a he and so he became Sam !
SASHA Sasha came into The Sanctuary the week before Easter in 2006 as a tiny young cub. She was found by local railway workers trapped beneath railway sleepers on the local railway line. It was thought that perhaps the mother cub was moving the cubs from the nest and Sasha became trapped, or she simply wandered away from the nest and became lost. Fortunately she had begun her weaning and didn't need to be bottle fed, so she was put into an incubator for heat. Once she no longer needed heat she was moved to the barn and eventually to the wildlife section with the hope of releasing her. Unfortunately, because of the amount of human contact she had as a small cub, she became too humanised and the decision was taken that she would not successfully release and so she has remained with us.
SQUIRRELS
In October 2004, tree fellers working in Durham found a nest of baby squirrels in a tree which they had just chopped down. They brought the kittens to us and they were fed goats milk from a syringe every 2 hours. Squiggle was the only one to survive.
It was recommended by another animal welfare organisation to put him to sleep, as he is classed as “vermin”.
The Sanctuary does not discriminate over which wildlife species it cares for.
SQUIRT
In Spring 2005, we were brought another young grey squirrel, who is in the next
pen to Squiggle and so now we have two male grey squirrels.
OWLS
STAR Star is a captive bred Barn Owl. She was born in July 2004 and owned by a young man who sadly died. His wife was unable to continue caring for her and so she asked The Sanctuary if we could take her. She is definitely one of our stars. When children have a 'wild' party the birthday child often asks to meet Star and when we have school visits, the schoolchildren all get to meet her. At the moment we have 30 Barn Owls at the Sanctuary, all of whom have been captive bred. Unfortunately it is illegal to release captive bred Barn Owls into the wild, as they are usually larger and stronger than their wild counterparts and take over their territories.
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We also have a large number of water fowl who have been brought in for a variety of reasons, some by people who have hatched them from eggs, some have been brought in as abandoned young and some for health reasons. Most of them have decided this seems like a good place to stay, so when they can fly and leave - they don't!! We have two swans who are kept in an enclosure, one is an old male who was having a tough time being picked on by younger cobs at Bolam Lake Country Park and one of the wardens asked if we could take him. The other was brought in with such a severe wing injury that his wing had to be removed, leaving him unable to fly and very vulnerable.
PIGS SALLY BABE Sally was brought to The Sanctuary in November 2005. She came from a farm attraction in the south of England. She was born the runt of the litter and was to be put to sleep. Her animal carer did not want this to happen and so she took her home and hand reared her. Unfortunately she could not keep her in her garden and contacted The Sanctuary to ask if we could offer her a home.
A natural life of pigsPigs are naturally sociable animals and highly intelligent. They use their very sensitive snouts to search out for food and make their beds with straw. Contrary to popular belief, pigs are very clean animals and never soil their own living space. They do however love to get dirty in hot weather and wallow in mud for a sun-screen. A typical life for a “fattening” pig14 million pigs are reared for meat in the UK each year, known as “fattening” pigs. The piglets are taken away from their mothers at 4 weeks old and by 5 months are sent to slaughter. They are usually housed indoors in barren and crowded pens and may have to lie on concrete or slatted floors. Piglets usually have their tails cut off (without anaesthetic) to avoid them biting each other’s tails. Science has shown that if kept in less crowded conditions, tail docking is not necessary. Help achieve better welfare for fattening pigs by buying free-range or organic pork or a vegetarian alternative. Remember you can help and achieve real change for millions of farm animals – use your shopping basket to help the animals. All pigs deserve to live a happy life in mud !
DONKEYS & PONIES CARRON AND CHUM – The Donkeys
Both
were originally rescued in Ireland
by The Donkey Sanctuary where they had been badly treated. To this day
they are still frightened of brooms.
They
have lived at The Sanctuary since 1994.
They do, in fact “belong” to The Donkey Sanctuary, but The Sanctuary
is responsible for their care and upkeep. A Welfare Officer from The
Donkey Sanctuary regularly checks on them but it is a good practice which we
welcome. It is also beneficial for any members of the public with their
donkeys who need advice or may even need to give them back to The Donkey
Sanctuary if their circumstances change.
CHARLIE – the grey pony.
Charlie was brought here because his owner was unable to keep him any more. He can be quite a bully and has one very bad habit – he chews all the fences and the newly planted trees ! He has, however, settled down very well and is very happy to give small children pony rides during the summer.
CAESAR – the palomino miniature horse
Caesar was brought to The Sanctuary by the owners of the Kune Kune pigs. As we have explained they needed to sell their smallholding as it was becoming too much work for them. Caesar is a lovely natured 3 year old miniature horse, but as yet he has not been broken-in for riding. Unfortunately, he can get a bit grumpy and kick out at the other pony and donkeys when there is food around!
GOATS At The Sanctuary, we probably have more goats than any other single animal (even rabbits!). All the goats at the Sanctuary have been rescued or were in need of a new home. They all have a story to tell, but here are a couple of the 'sadder' ones. BENWELL
THE BOYS FROM WIDDRINGTON
TJ
LILO & STITCH
The family then contacted The Sanctuary to ask if we could take them for their own safety and protection. They are wandering goats, but Lilo (on the right) constantly jumps out of their enclosure in the barn where they are brought in each evening and escapes! Sad times … The
Sanctuary suffered some very sudden and unexpected deaths among the goats once
the building work started for us to open to the
public. Both the vets and ourselves were baffled as to what
was going on as all our goats are routinely vaccinated. The
younger “new” arrivals seemed to suffer most with dreadful diarrhoea,
intense pain and death within 24 hours. It was awful to see and no-one
knew what was causing it to prevent it. We lost three goats within one
month. Finally
we discovered that it was a bacteria in the soil that the younger goats
lacked immunity to and due to all the soil excavation, it made a bad
situation worse. All the goats are now vaccinated with a new vaccine
and all is well but we will never forgot those we lost in such tragic and sad
circumstances. We also have a large number of birds and waterfowl, some of whom have been brought to us to be re-homed and some of whom came in as young chicks and have stayed - they obviously have learned where they are well off! SHEEP SUNFLOWER
Sunflower came into the Sanctuary a few weeks after TJ in Spring of 2005. Again we received a phone call from the police, asking if we could take a young lamb that had been found wandering through the town centre at Cramlington.
BELLE Belle was brought to The Sanctuary by her owner in May 2009 when she was only 3 days old. She is a Shetland lamb whose mother rejected her at birth, which is very unusual as Shetland Sheep are renowned as being good mothers. Her owner did not have time to hand rear her and so he asked if we could take her. Although she looks small on this photograph, she is in fact tiny as Shetland are smallest of the British breeds of sheep. Take this link to a video of her being bottle fed by the owners' 9 year old daughter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2xz7GqBp28
UNWANTED PETS As with any sanctuary, unwanted pets appear on a regular basis. Although we are a wildlife sanctuary and our aim is to care for indigenous wildlife, we are asked, almost on a daily basis, if we will take unwanted pets, from rabbits to degus, giant land snails to Boa Constrictors! We have always found it difficult to say no, although latterly we have sometimes had little choice as we have so many animals and limited space. Here are a few of our residents.
We also have 3 very special tortoises, which were brought to The Sanctuary in the winter of 2004/2005 while they were in hibernation. These were most certainly NOT unwanted pets, but their owner brought them to us as she was finding it difficult to lift them as they were becoming too heavy as she became frailer. The lady was in her 80s and had owned the 3 tortoises for 42 years! Unfortunately, she recently died, but wrote to us regularly asking how they were and sending a donation towards their keep. Sadly we have to report that one of the 2 female tortoises died early this year (2010).
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This page is dedicated
to all the animals, who for one reason or another, we have been unable to release
back to the wild. We have over 100 animals in permanent care and
it isn't possible to list every one here, but we have listed a few with their
own story (Click on any photograph to see a larger, more detailed image). 
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