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A valiant rescue took place in Wiltshire today to help save a swan doused in oil. An unsuccessful attempt had been made last night to rescue the bird. However today, a combined effort from charity Swan Support and the RSPCA meant that the swan was successfully removed from the lake. It has been taken to the West Hatch Animal Centre in Somerset to recover. Wendy Hermon, operations director of Swan Support, said it was one of the worst oil-related incidents she had seen in 30 years of work. She said: “It was a challenging rescue but one you just couldn’t walk away from. With this cold, the oil would have made things awful for it.
Left in the street: the cage of doves
SIX doves that were dumped from a car in Acton are now looking for new homes. The RSPCA was contacted by people who saw a car pull up in Anderson Close on January 27 and dump the birds in a cage. Insp Francesca Tambini went to collect the birds and took them to RSPCA Harmsworth Animal Hospital. She said: “The white doves were inside a cage lined with newspaper and were abandoned when a car pulled up in front of a block of flats. “The birds - known as a flight of doves - were thankfully in good condition but were taken into care until we could find space at one of our rehoming centres.”
CHICKENS are sadly being dumped and abandoned in Dorset amid bird-flu fears. The RSPCA is warning of a chicken crisis after high numbers of people bought chicks during lockdown and now can’t take care of them, particularly in light of bird flu warnings. The animal welfare charity has dealt with 23 incidents in the county involving chickens this year, and is concerned rescue centres will be overrun with birds soon due to increasing numbers of hens and cockerels being abandoned. An RSPCA spokesman said: “Concerns were raised during lockdown about the increase in pet acquisition and ownership, and we feared that people would soon lose interest and start to hand their animals over once life started to return to normal.
Cockerels and hens that were bought during the lockdown are being dumped in large numbers as owners try to tackle a return of bird flu.
The RSPCA has dealt with 1,562 abandoned birds in the UK this year as new owners struggle to comply with the Government s new biosecurity advice following the outbreak of the H5N8 strain - which has not infected any humans to date.
The charity has also taken 280 chickens into its centres for rehoming and has warned that rescue centres could soon become overrun with the abandoned birds as more people get rid of their pets.
It comes after hen producers reported a surge in demand for chicks this spring following a shortage of eggs in supermarkets.