Inside Animal A&E The work of Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital
Caring Les Stocker started Tiggywinkles as a hedgehog ward in his garden shed. Now it’s a wildlife world leader
Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital nestles around the corner of the sleepy, old English village of Haddenham. As soon as you step inside this now worldfamous wildlife hospital, your eye is immediately drawn to the wonderful, framed wildlife pphotographs hanging in the bbright, welcoming reception area. All were taken by the hhospital’s founder, the late
Les Stocker MBE.
Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking Tiggywinkles was just for hedgehogs; that’s how it started out 40 or so years ago. During the drought of 1984, the entire UK hedgehog population seemed to be arriving at the Stockers’ door.
Actor Susan Hampshire opened the original Tiggywinkles hedgehog-only ward in a shed at the bottom of the Stockers’ back garden.
The couple were the first to admit they were complete novices when they and their young son, Colin, started taking injured wildlife into their home. Les was an accountant, while Sue worked in finance for Marks & Spencer. Yet due to their amazing work, Tiggywinkles is now the foremost wildlife hospital in the world. More than 300,000 animals have been treated here. Sometimes they have 1,600 patients on a single day. Each receives the best possible care, be they a toad, badger, hedgehog or deer.
It was the discovery of an injured fox which sowed the seeds for their dream of opening a full wildlife hospital, Sue says, “Les took it to a vet and when he went back to collect it he was told it had been put down. He was distraught. He’d told them he’d pay for any treatment but they obviously had no intention of helping this little animal.”
A few years later, Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra opened the new Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital.
Francesca Campanaro started volunteering at the hospital when she was 16 and studying for an NVQ in animal care. Now in her late 30s, she is a senior nurse. She says she’s learned a lot through the years from the hospital’s
specialist vets, from Les Stocker, and from other nurses.
First stop is the bird nursery where heated cages line the walls. It’s just the start of the season and there are already 70 occupants ranging from blackbirds, starlings and robins to ducks. By midAugust it will be packed.
The 100 or so staff are made up of specialist wildlife and consultant vets and nurses plus a wonderful team of dedicated fosterers and volunteers of whom
Sue Stocker is very proud. With baby birds needing to be fed every 15 minutes from 9am until 9pm, Tiggywinkles couldn’t do without them. Working in shifts, they start at one end of the cages and keep going back and forwards.
A lot of the baby mammals are hand reared – including badgers, rabbits, foxes and hedgehogs. They are often fed by hand day and night. This can create a close bond but Francesca is keen to stress, “We don’t want them to get too tame. Our aim is to get them back into the wild. They are checked daily but we handle them as little as possible.”
Noise levels in the hospital are kept down. Handling is usually limited to when animals are being anaesthetised. All are released where they were found.
So has Francesca ever been hurt? “I have been kicked by deer,” she admits, laughing. “But it’s usually our team of trained rescuers who go out and pick up injured animals.”
Next stop is the veterinary prep area where a lot of first aid and life-saving work goes on.
Nursing staff and vets are kept busy putting in drips and working on fractures. Cameras monitor three injured deer in their heated outdoor shed, enabling staff to keep a close eye with minimum contact.
“We don’t want them to get too tame. Our aim is to get them back into the wild”
“As you can see we are a proper hospital,” Francesca adds proudly as we go into the scrub-up room and two high-tech operating theatres.
As we walk back through the visitor centre, my eye is drawn to Les Stocker’s original Tiggywinkles hedgehog-only ward recreated here as a reminder of their days at Pemberton Close. Les’ original first aid box and “hedgehog uncurling machine” are displayed in the window.
Colin has now stepped into his father’s shoes as CEO of the hospital, and haas made a video in tribute to his father showing some of the special moments in Tiggywinkles’ history.
Les and Sue were married for 52 years and she speaks proudly of his achievements.
“Les said everything needed saving, be it ugly or beautiful. It just worked between the three of us. Les would say ‘I want this or that’ and Colin would make it happen, raising the money. Colin and I have allergies to the animals and so do more work behind the scenes, whereas Les was really hands-on, so our roles worked out well.
“As Les said, ‘A little blackbird or robin with a broken wing feels the same pain as an eagle with the same injury’.”