Wildlife Rescue

by Linda

(A walk on the wild side)

Working at PHP, besides our many domestic pets, we also see various wild animals and liaise with the dedicated people that work for these concerns.

One of our enduring charities is the Hedgehog Rescue who originally based in Hamworthy have been bequeathed a wonderful donation to enable them to open a beautiful care/rescue centre near Bere Regis. Hedgehog Rescue are passionate about their work and will nurture the tiniest hedgehogs back to health, underweight hedgehogs need to be 650 grammes before being released into the wild;  if they need medical attention they contact us and we attend to it.  Thousands of hedgehogs are rescued by Hedgehog Rescue and we are proud to be able to assist them in their selfless mission.

On another occasion, one of our vets at the time, Tessa, had  some wild mice brought in to her by a member of the public.   She examined them for any injuries and then went the extra mile, by neutering them and taking them home to live as pets. Tessa’s mantra always was, every animal deserved a loving home.

Another interesting animal we helped was a bat, which a builder had found on a site that was being developed.  We contacted the bat rescue people who came to take it to safety,  Bats are a protected species and the member of the public who brought it to us, did the correct thing as we could ensure it went to the correct bat conservancy body.  Incidentally when handling bats the advice is to wear protective gloves as there is a slight risk of rabies.

We see a variety of wild species and have contacts who will take an animal once the vet has treated it, deer, kingfishers, bird of prey, to name but a few.

One day I was doing my daily walk in the local countryside, when I saw a small group of people bending over a young deer that was lying on the pavement by the roadside.  It looked injured, maybe clipped by a car, and was looking very frightened and vulnerable.  No one knew what to do and were all very concerned. 

I suddenly remembered our phone book at work with all the wildlife contacts in it and I rang and asked for the wildlife rescue number.  

Meanwhile, a man had pulled over in his Landrover to see what was going on.  He was dressed in Country attire and was young and thickset.  Immediately he offered to shoot the deer to put it out of its misery……..I interjected that I worked for the local vet and had just rung the wildlife people to help. He looked rather unimpressed with my intervention to say the least and said the deer would be better off with his solution.

I insisted we wait for the volunteer from the wildlife people. I waited and the bystanders waited and so, worryingly did ‘Mr Landrover’ ...

After about half an hour I knew I had to go as I had to get ready for work, but the people who were originally with the deer promised to wait for the rescue to appear.

I think I worried about the fate of that little deer a lot and when I got to work I rang the wildlife rescue centre to see what had happened.

Apparently, the volunteer had not been used to the area and that was why he was late.  However, they had managed to lift the deer into their vehicle safely.  Ironically they  had asked the help of  ‘Mr Landrover’, who declined as he was frightened of the powerful  kick of a deer……what a big hero he turned out to be!

About a month later, Mike from the Wildlife Rescue rang to speak to me personally and said that very morning ‘my’ little deer had been released into the countryside again…….he said in his opinion I had saved its life.

Helping animals is what we are all about at PHP and to paraphrase a famous book, we care for all creatures great and small!