Rescue missions for animal heroes

The Scottish SPCA rescues and rehomes vulnerable animals across Scotland. Gayle spends the day shadowing an animal rescue officer

Saving badgers, cats, foxes, dogs, snakes, bats and birds in distress is all in a day’s work for Ben Soutar. As an animal rescue officer for the Scottish SPCA, he travels the length and breadth of Tayside responding to animal-related emergencies phoned in by members of the public.

When we meet up, Ben is starting a shift covering Dundee and Angus, although, as I’ll discover, he’ll travel a lot further.

First up, we check on a wood pigeon in Broughty Ferry, which a woman suspects has been attacked by a cat.

She’s left it under a laundry basket in her garden and Ben checks the bird over, determining that it’s just been stunned as it has no visible injuries.

He places it into a box for now – he’ll drop it off at the national wildlife rescue centre in Clackmannanshire, later.

Driving towards Montrose, where a man has rung in about a distressed goose, Ben tells me he dealt with a Royal Python found slithering along a path in the tiny Angus village of St Vigeans the previous day.

“I assume it was abandoned,” he says. “It wasn’t shedding its skin and was very poorly hydrated. It’s being looked after by staff at our Petterden centre.”

Other memorable rescues include a buzzard clipped by a train, a badger stuck in a council building, a cat with a corroded jaw, and a swan which smacked him on the back of his knee with its wing.

There’s also been the odd deadly spider, brought in on bunches of bananas from abroad, and he’s had to put down numerous deer hit by cars.

Arriving in Montrose, we find the goose huddled in a scrubby bush. It can’t fly so Ben flips a net over it in one swift movement.

On examination, he finds blood on its wing and reckons it’s hit a power line.

It’s hissing because it feels threatened and it is skinny so Ben puts it into a box, and into the van.

The next job is in Carnoustie, where three calls have come in about an injured seagull.

We find the youngster flapping around with a broken leg, its parents crying for it, and Ben warns me to “watch my head” as we approach.

Surprisingly, it flies off, and disappears over the rooftops. “Not much we can do about that,” quips Ben.

“Birds can manage on one leg so if this seagull can fly, so be it.”

There’s no time for a break and we motor on to Milnathort where there’s a report of a rabbit with myxomatosis.

It’s heartbreaking to see the wee thing, its eyes swollen and barely moving.

It’s thought rabbits die within a few weeks of contracting the disease so the kindest thing is to put it down, and Ben discreetly administers a fatal drug.

After he’s handed over his collection of walking wounded to wildlife centre staff in Fishcross, we head back to Dundee, where two calls have come in about stray cats, one of which was contained in a greenhouse until it started hitting itself against the glass.

Ben – a former animal control officer with Dundee City Council – has been in the role for six years and hopes to one day become an inspector.

“Whether a crow or a cat, everything is treated with the same respect,” he says.

“Sadly, we can’t save every animal and often the kindest thing for them is to be put to sleep due to their suffering.

“Initially I found that hard, but you do get hardened to it; you have to!”

Not everyone offers Ben a warm welcome and he’s been on the receiving end of abuse many times.

I head off at 4.30pm, but Ben’s day isn’t finished – he has to lay a trap for a feral cat and check on another rabbit.

We’ve clocked up 220 miles and it’s not unusual for him to pass the 1,000 mile mark in a week, especially if he’s called to far flung locations like Tyndrum or Crianlarich.

It’s a job that requires 110% passion and dedication and I take my hat off to Ben; it’s not a job most of us could do.