Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett

Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column

IT’S all go at the Chris Wicks Wildlife Rescue (CWWR) centre. ALL sorts of animals are being cleaned out, assessed or moving to different accommodation.

For a start there’s a magnificent red kite being moved to a larger aviary in preparation for release. He was found in hot weather, dehydrated and hungry. Chris had to crawl onto a garage roof to retrieve him.

Then there’s three baby tawny owls – all rescued from different places after they had been found in difficulties. Like the red kite, they will move to a bigger aviary before release.

Looking very comfortable is an elderly fox snuggled up in an outside run. He came to the centre after repeated sightings of a frail fox hanging round a hospital. Retrieved by Chris, the fox is now receiving end-of-life care at the centre and is looking very content with the arrangement.

Other patients currently include jackdaws, bluetits, goldfinches, pigeons, kestrels and sparrows as well as poorly hedgehogs.

If you want to help CWWR, see cwwildliferescue.com or follow them on Facebook. In particular, they currently need volunteers and dog food (for the foxes).

The centre operates on the principles of rescue, rehabilitate and release. The ultimate goal being to set the animal free.

The opposite of freedom is constraint and, unfortunately, despite the growing clamour for “Nests not Netting” (rspb.org.uk), Chris sees too many animals brought in after losing their freedom after becoming trapped in netting.

He’s had to care for swifts and house martins entangled in deterrence netting as well as badgers and foxes caught in goalpost netting. Chris says netting injuries are usually serious.

When the animal realises they’re caught, they panic with the net often forming a tourniquet round a part of their body and cutting off the blood supply.

These experiences at CWWR mirror those at the RSPCA where every year they receive hundreds of calls to rescue animals entangled in sports, garden or deterrence netting.

The RSPCA says if we see a live animal trapped in netting, we should alert the owner of the netting or building. If help is needed to rescue the animal, we should phone the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999. Alternatively we should contact a local rescue centre via helpwildlife. co.uk.

If we see dead birds in netting or if we know a place where birds regularly become trapped we should email wildlife@rspca.org.uk with details.

They recommend that, in order to prevent wildlife injuries from sports netting, after use it is removed and stored away.

The rescued tawny owl chicks