Latest news
A message to all our friends and visitors — February 16 2010
Sadly, Wetheriggs Animal Rescue had a break-in overnight. We were alerted just after we opened up at 8am this morning. Robyn one of the Eagle Owls was sitting on top of the Reptile House, calling to our youngest Eagle Owl who was sitting in a nearby tree.
On inspection we found most of the mews pens had been opened. Two Harris Hawks (one of them Squeaky, who Ted hand-reared), a European Eagle Owl and a Little Owl were missing.
The Police think that the Harris Hawks were stolen: it’s not certain if the other two birds have been stolen or just let out. Robyn and the young Eagle Owl were happy to fly to me when I arrived on site with Jim, not long after.
Any information that could help lead to the return of the birds would be very much appreciated. You can contact me or anyone at Wetheriggs, or of course the Police.
Terry Bowes
Director
01768 866657 / 07764 352835
director@wetheriggsanimalrescue.co.uk
Cumbria Police
1/2, Carleton Hall, Carleton Avenue, Penrith CA10 2AU
0845 330 0247
URGENT HELP NEEDED Please contact us if you are able to volunteer to help with the animals, in the cafe or shop or if you would like to give a donation of money or items to sell on our charity table (no clothes or electrial items). You can donate online using PayPal® or a credit card. We also need items to help the animals, for example timber for building, water bottles, feeding bowls, cages, hutches for all types of animals.
A message to all our friends and visitors — January 10 2010
The weather continues to be very cold indeed, although this morning the air temperature is slightly above freezing for the first time in over a week. We have now had 26 continuous days with snow or compacted snow on the ground.
Every morning when we come in all of the taps are frozen, the water for the animals has to be carried long distances from the single indoor tap that we eventually free from the icy grip of the weather.
All credit to Ted and the volunteers who have made sure that the animals have never been without water the whole time, that’s a dificult job when you think that it freezes almost instantly with such low temperatures, we have had it as low as -17.5.
Along with all of this the animal feed costs continue to rise, this week’s hay bill alone was £250 and that’s for just one week. Some of the animal food that we use has been difficult to get. Crickets for instance are not being transported in the cold because they die at low temperatures and we use lots of crickets for our reptiles and spiders etc so we have had to go and collect them. Not even thinking what the electric bill will be for January.
If anyone has any horse blankets we could do with some for the extra horses that have come in because of the bad weather.
The cold weather has also meant no visitors, we wouldn’t have expected many during January but the few we would have had would have been a little help to pay the bills.
Terry Bowes
Director
PS: Just after I wrote the above the temperature started to rise; as it did we experienced burst pipes in one place after another. The cafe ended up with about two inches of water on the floor, loos were flooded, as was the reptile house, so now it’s all volunteers to the wheel to tidy up!
New arrivals (December 2009)
- Two pygmy goat kids, a brown one and a white one.
- Another three baby Armadillo Lizards making it eleven in all.
- Another four Turkish Spiny Mice.
- Another four Zebra Grass Mice. Wow!!
- Also “newly arrived” are our new trustees: Susan, Sammi, Jill and Alan. A huge Wetheriggs welcome to the four of you!
