News

Caring for our feathered friends for 50 years

Over the last 50 years Wadars animal rescue charity has dealt with many thousands of wild and domestic animals and birds and last year alone it responded to calls from concerned members of the public relating to more than 1,350 wildlife casualties. A large proportion of the calls are about sick or injured birds, which can range in size from small garden birds to large birds of prey and swans.

Each year between late May and September, Wadars Animal Rescue Officers spend much of their time responding to calls about young seagulls that have fallen from roof tops. In 2018 Wadars rescue officers, supported by a team of trained wildlife volunteers, responded to callouts to more than 600 seagull chicks.

Wherever possible rescue officers will return the gull chicks back onto the roof that they fell from as they stand a much better chance of survival with their parents than coming into a wildlife centre.

A few weeks before Christmas Wadars animal rescue officer Julie Brewer was called to a local garage to assist with a buzzard which had flown full pelt into the grill of a van that was travelling on the motorway near Portsmouth.

Despite the bird being well and truly jammed into the grill of the van, the driver continued on to Worthing before he realised what had happened. Rescue officer, Julie was able to help cut it free and then took it along to a local vet where it was thoroughly checked over for any injuries.

 X-rays revealed that nothing was broken and after a short period of recuperation, the buzzard was eventually released by Wadars back into the area that it originally came from. 

Runaway tortoises and stowaway snakes – all in a day’s work for Wadars!

Worthing based Wadars animal rescue is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and over the coming weeks we are supporting the celebrations by highlighting just some of the many hundreds of stories that the charity has to tell. One such story involved a tortoise who was found straying on the M25 back in September 2009.

Freeway as he was named by staff at Wadars, was spotted in the fast lane of the motorway during rush hour by a commuter who was on his way home to Worthing. Having first assumed he was looking at a piece of debris, the driver very quickly realised that it was moving and pulled his car onto the hard shoulder before running 400 yards back along the road to rescue the tortoise. The gentleman then dropped the tortoise off at a vet in Worthing, who gave it a check over and then handed it across to Wadars to be cared for. Sadly, despite attempts to trace his owners no one came forward and Freeway was eventually adopted by the vet that had checked him over when he first arrived in Worthing.

Another story involved a local couple who purchased a suitcase from Argos in preparation for their forthcoming holiday. The large suitcase came in an even larger cardboard box, and when the couple got home and opened it up, they were greeted by a four-foot-long corn snake! The startled couple then called Wadars, and animal rescue officer Billy Elliot, went along to collect the snake. It was eventually handed over to a specialist reptile rescue centre who cared for it until it could be found a suitable new home. 

In order to help raise much needed funds during its 50th anniversary, Wadars will be staging a number of events and activities including its annual Walk for Wadars sponsored walk. The 5-mile route for the event, which is entirely flat and so suitable for young and old alike, starts on Goring Gap Green next to the Sea Lane Café, and goes right along the seafront to Worthing Pier and back.

This year Walk for Wadars will take place on Sunday 12th May. The event is free to enter, and participants are asked to raise sponsorship for the charity. Wadars Operations Manager Tracy Cadman said; “We don’t have a set level of sponsorship for people to raise, and some participants do raise hundreds of pounds, but being our 50th anniversary we will be encouraging as many people as possible to try and raise at least £50 for us – that said, every penny helps!”

To enter Walk for Wadars, call the charity on 01903 247111 or log onto www.wadars.co.uk and search for Walk for Wadars. 

A massive thank you to everyone who helped us with the Support Adoption for Pets summer scratchcard event during June this year.

The £1,414:88 that was raised for Wadars through the event in Pets at Home was handed over to our fundraiser, Sophia Wilks this week.

 

 

 

Do you recognise this cat?

This elderly female cat was taken to Southdown Vets in Southwick by a concerned member of the public on Friday 8th June.

She has a growth on her neck and is quite thin.

Wadars is desperately trying to find out who she belongs to – please do call us if you recognise her, and if you live in the Southwick, Shoreham or Portslade areas, ask your neighbours whether they know her.

We have a post on our Facebook page about her so please share that if you can.

Four chickens abandoned in Yapton

Wadars animal rescue has this morning collected four chickens that were abandoned in the porch of a home in Yapton overnight.

Ferring based Wadars receives over 1,200 calls a year to go out to birds and other wildlife but were rather surprised to receive the call about the chickens.

Wadars Operations Manager, Tracy Cadman, said; “I guess we should never be surprised about the calls we receive, but it’s the first time we’ve had one about chickens being abandoned in this way! They are all fairly thin, but other than that they appear quite healthy.”

Tracy continued: “The home owner told me that she got quite a shock when she got up this morning. She could hear a funny noise and looked around the house to find out where it was coming from. She then realised that it was coming from the direction of the porch, and when she opened the door, got the shock of her life and very quickly shut it again!”

Wadars has now managed to find someone to care for the chickens until new homes can be found for them.

Would you like to know more about the work of Wadars?

At 11am on Wednesday 9th May at Haskins Roundstone Garden Centre in Angmering, our community ambassadors will be giving a talk about our work with both wildlife and companion animals. Following the talk there will be a Q&A session with Wadars Senior Animal Rescue Officer, Billy Elliot, who has worked for the charity for 20 years. Entry into the talk is FREE (donations gratefully received), so to avoid disappointment please book your place by messaging us on Facebook, calling us on 01903 247111 or emailing enquiries@wadars.co.uk – we look forward to seeing you there!

Can you help to get Kevin back home for Christmas?

This little cat was found in the Salvington area of Worthing by a lady who had driven from Chatham in Kent, to Horsham, and then on to Salvington, at which point she heard crying coming from under the car bonnet. At the moment we are not sure whether he got in the car in Kent, Horsham, or locally. If anyone you know has lost a young cat like this, please do ask them to contact us on 01903 247111. We will obviously require proof of ownership by anyone making a claim on him.

Thank you to Arun District Council staff

Thank you to all the staff at the Littlehampton and Bognor Regis offices of Arun District Council, who have very kindly donated dozens of toys and edible treats for the animals in our care this Christmas. The gifts were donated as part of the Council’s festive ‘Giving Tree’ appeal. Mike Knight from Arun District Council visited our office earlier this week to hand over the goodies to Wadars Fundraising & Volunteer Coordinator, Sophia Wilks.

We are in desperate need of wet cat food – can you help?

We desperately need donations of wet cat food – can you help? We are currently caring for a large number of hedgehogs who are either injured and under veterinary treatment, or too small to be allowed to hibernate. If you can donate any wet cat food, we would be incredibly grateful. Our office (in Hangleton Lane, Ferring, BN12 6PP) is open between 10am and 3pm each day, but we also have a bin outside the door for donations when we are closed. Any donations would be very gratefully received.