|
|
|
|
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"! Unfortunately, well meaning members of the public do sometimes interfere with wild animals when in some cases they should be left well alone and in the wild. An “abandoned” fox cub will in fact be reared by its aunts if its mother is killed and should be left, provided it is well hidden and out of immediate danger. (Not on open roads, in busy parks etc) With so many wildlife
and animal hospital programmes on TV, some people try to hand rear cute young 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 !
At the moment the Sanctuary has 11 foxes in care. Five of these (including Donut and Sam) can be seen from the hide - the rest are in our wildlife section which is not open to the public. Included in these 11 foxes is one of two young cubs, both of whom came to us in the Spring of 2005 and in dreadful circumstances, almost at death’s door and both of them looking to be no more than 3 months old. The first cub had been poisoned. He was comatose when he was brought in and none of us thought he would make it. For the first few days he had to be force fed goats milk and it was a while before we knew that he was picking up and fighting back. How did we realise that? Well, because he bit Allan as he was feeding him! He suffered a few setbacks before we knew for certain he was on the road to recovery. We are very hopeful that we will be able to release him soon. The second cub had been found trapped down a drain, he was starving, dehydrated, terrified and absolutely filthy and again it was touch and go whether he would survive - thankfully he did and he was released back into the wild in the autumn.
BADGERS DUSK ( and our film star ! )
During
the recent BBC filming of “Badger” with Jerome Flynn , Dusk appeared in a
number of scenes and did what she does best – sleep! Jerome Flynn did
not risk being bitten and in fact The Sanctuary’s owner’s arm was
the stand in for Jerome’s ! So
don’t believe everything you see on TV !!
We would also like to
pay tribute to another very special lad no longer with us ….. Some
visitors to The Sanctuary will remember another character that was special to us
–Arnie,the badger.
Arnie was brought to The Sanctuary in 1998 but he was too imprinted to be
released. He was extremely territorial and would try to bite anyone who
got too close – apart from The Sanctuary owners whom he considered his family
and he would scent-mark their wellies. A mark of honour ! Sadly, Arnie died in the spring of 2004. He is still greatly missed and will certainly never be forgotten by anyone who had the privilege to meet him.
SQUIRRELS SQUIGGLE
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. In
Spring 2005, we were brought another young grey squirrel (Squirt) who is in the
next pen to Squiggle and so now we have two male grey squirrels.
Because grey squirrels are now classed as vermin, we cannot release them back
into the wild, so we now urgently need to build a large squirrel enclosure.
If you would like to sponsor this new enclosure, or make a donation
towards the cost - it will cost around £700 to build - please let us know.
We do need your help!
HERON A Heron with attitude!
The Sanctuary was asked to intervene, but unfortunately the bird is now quite aggressive and cannot be released as it does try to attack people rather than avoid them. As most of the release sites that The Sanctuary uses to release birds are also open to the public, it would be far too risky to release it there in case it does attack and child, as its razor sharp beak could easily blind someone! Unfortunately, a life in captivity is far from ideal either, but what are the options in this particular case? Yet again, man interfering without any thought for this bird's future, has ruined its life.
OWLS
Star is a captive bred Barn Owl. She was owned by a young man who sadly died and The Sanctuary was asked to 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 CLYDE. The Kune Kune Pig
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!
DUNN – the miniature shetland
Dunn was brought to The Sanctuary in April 2006, along with Wilfred the Pygmy Goat by his owners who were no longer able to keep them.
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. GOATEE
CHAMPAGNE & SODA POP
We had to pay the farm £ for lb the same as what they would have made as sausage meat! Of course it is not possible or realistic to save every animal from market - nor would we wish to do so - but in this particular case we had been introduced and had looked each other in the eye!! As you may gather from this photograph, they had a good life with us here. Unfortunately, Soda Pop died in the summer of 2005 and Champagne died in the spring of 2007, but at least they both enjoyed an extra 11 and 13 years of life and luxury with us.
TOM & HOLLY
Tom and Holly arrived at The Sanctuary in July 2004. They came from a large battery farm where they had been housed in very small units in a dark barn for over ten years. Due
to this, Tom is still agoraphobic (fears open spaces) but he truly is a really
wonderful gentle giant who just loves lots of attention.
Sadly, because of the 'legacy' of their earlier lives they are still afraid to go outside and join the goat gang out in the fields, but live quite happily in the barn. BENWELL
THE BOYS FROM WIDDRINGTON
TJ
LILO & STITCH
Unfortunately, some people nearby did not
like the goats and complained to the council to have them taken away. The
situation escalated and one day poison was found in their The family then contacted The Sanctuary to ask if we could take them for their own safety and protection. They are wondering goats, but Lilo (on the right) constantly jumps out of their enclosure in the barn where they are brought in each evening and escapes! We think she is in love with Bobby our old black pygmy goat, who may be getting on in years, but obviously has lost none of his charm and attraction!! SUNFLOWER
Sunflower is our only sheep. She came into the Sanctuary a few weeks after TJ. 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.
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!
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.
|
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 200 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). 
.jpg)
