Episode 10 Animal Frontline

Good afternoon, RSPCA Control Centre.

Is the cat still breathing?

You don't think it's breathing?

Every 30 seconds someone calls the RSPCA about an animal

that needs help.

I'll pass this information through to the officer.

From neglected pets to injured wildlife.

For the trained inspectors, every shift is a challenge.

In the field.

That's disgusting.

We can't leave this situation as it is.

Now they tell us what it's really like on the Animal Frontline.

No day really is the same.

We have piggies!

It never ceases to amaze me.

I go to bed thinking about it and I wake up thinking about it.

What makes a good RSPCA Inspector?

Nerves of steel, stomach of iron and a sense of humour!

Today, an urgent call to a deer hit by a car.

I think it's something that we need to deal with immediately.

Rounding up these reluctant seals...

One at a time, please.

..ready to release them back into the wild.

-Hurry up. You've got to be quick.

-Oh there you go.

And Inspector Dave McAdam rescues a dog

with a life threatening condition.

As soon as it was seen it was obvious,

hugely obvious, that that dog had to go straight to the vet.

Since the recession,

the RSPCA has seen a sharp increase in calls to abandoned horses.

How many horses are there on the field did you say?

When was this, that you saw them?

Expensive to stable and feed, they are often simply left in fields.

Today a call has come in about two unclaimed horses near Hull,

and one appears to be injured.

Inspector Sarah Keith is on her way to rescue the abandoned horses

and check out any injuries.

I'm just going to try and catch them

and get them out of this field cos one of the ponies

we think might have the start of a head collar in-growing.

If it's not in-growing yet then it's well on the way to be.

We need to catch it and we're going to catch its friend

and take its friend as well.

The horses need to be contained.

If they escape, their speed and strength make them

a real danger to the public.

Hello, baby!

Sarah's meeting another inspector

and a team from the local vet to help out.

When you go to a horse call,

generally you never know what method of capture you're going to use

because it depends on how well handled they are.

Whether they will allow themselves to be caught.

The pony that didn't have the head collar on which we still

needed to catch but it wasn't the main concern, came quite quietly.

-Good lad. Look at your tash.

-That's an easy one.

-Yeah.

The pony with the head collar injury was a different story.

Leave that out and see if it'll follow. Leave it alone.

What they tried to do was lead the horse that they had hold of

through the gate in order to then grab hold of the other

one as it came through the gate.

Closing. Closing.

Get that pony over.

Unfortunately the pony with the head collar injury had other ideas.

And he's jumped it. That's excellent.

And then the chase began.

You all right, Shannon?

Oh dear.

There's a pony and it's loose and it's running up the road.

I don't want it to go down towards the main road.

A 450 kilo horse is a dangerous proposition.

I don't want it anywhere near that main road there.

There you go. Shut the gate! Shut the gate!

A lot of the time these horses, once you've got hold of them

and they know you've got hold of them, they sort of give up.

Steady, steady. Just let him chill.

Unfortunately that didn't happen with this particular pony.

Back in the field!

The horse is clearly in pain and trying to hold him

by the head collar is making things worse.

To catch them you've got to use the head collar

but you know as soon as you put pressure on that head collar,

it's going to be painful for the horse.

All right, darling. You can't go down there, can you, poppet?

Some horses will stay away from a barricade of human bodies.

This horse was one that would plough straight through it.

The team want to fit a temporary collar so they can lead him

without hurting him more.

But the frightened pony is having none of it.

It's a very stressful situation for this pony to be in.

Steady, steady, steady.

There we are. Good boy.

Finally, he's gently coaxed in.

Everyone just takes a deep sigh of relief once the horse

is in the trailer.

But of course that's not the end of the story, we've got

to then get it to the vet safely.

And then get it out of the trailer and examine it at the other end.

At the stables, the horses appear calmer.

Actually managed to get them without too much fuss, amazingly,

into the examination area and into the stocks at the vet.

Oh steady, steady, sweetheart.

And up close, Sarah can see the damage the head collar has done.

If horses have a head collar that's too tight

and they're a young horse and they grow, the head collar doesn't

grow with the horse so it can grow into the skin

and in worse case scenarios

the skin can actually start to grow over the head collar.

Because he's in pain, the horse is sedated before the vet examines him.

Sleepy time.

Once he'd calmed down, the vet took the head collar off.

And that tissue had grown into one of the buckle holes on the noseband.

You can actually see where it's grown through

the eyelet in the head collar.

So I mean, basically that's telling us that this

head collar has been too tight for a while.

But I mean, anyone with a brain cell can see that that's too tight.

You imagine going across your head like that and trying to eat.

Uncomfortable.

Now we've removed the tightness here,

that I would hope would be fine.

Although, yes, it had an injury, it could have been a whole lot worse

if it had remained uncaptured or unnoticed.

So good outcome for the pony. No permanent damage.

The pony will stay in for treatment.

But after a check up the other horse is declared fit for re-homing.

A great result.

Certainly the second pony is well on his way to finding a new home.

When an animal is sick, it's down to owners to seek veterinary treatment.

But when that doesn't happen,

the RSPCA is often left to pick up the pieces.

In Mansfield, Inspector Dave McAdam is on his way his way to

a report of a seriously ill dog.

We've received a call from a member of the public stating that

there's a dog at the premises that has a tumour on it, like a

lump on it, which is football sized and is actually touching the floor.

It sounds serious, so Dave has called in the police

in case he needs to legally remove the dog.

Hello, mate, how's it going?

I thought this is a defo problem job.

I've had a lot of these in the past.

I've had some huge pendulous tumours on all manner of dogs.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Ones that severely impede their ability to walk

and in the worst cases

I've had it where dogs have had to be euthanized, which is awful.

Hello. Sorry to bother you.

Inspector Dave McAdam from the RSPCA.

Someone phoned up and said you've got one with a great big tumour

that's touching the floor.

Would you be able to show us so we can say we've seen it?

That would be great.

When I visited, the owners weren't actually in.

It was the sons of the owners that we spoke to.

And they immediately showed us to Gizmo.

As soon as it was seen it was obvious, hugely obvious,

that that dog had to go straight to the vet.

Look, mate, I'm going to have to take that today, buddy.

That's in a right state. That worries me, that does.

The mass underneath, it was like a large part of the dog.

You know, it'd probably be at least 10% of the dog's weight itself.

What I'll have to do, obviously it's not your dog,

I'll have to get my good friend Steve here to seize the dog

so we've got authority to take it.

Reason being, that I don't have authority to take dogs

just without your authority to the vet

but I need to take her to the vet when she's got that.

That worries me a bit, she could be suffering.

Dave can see the dog, called Gizmo, has been ill for some time

and he finds out why it's not been treated.

Unfortunately both the owners were

suffering from quite serious illnesses.

I don't believe they were able to work.

Money was tight and they just weren't in a position

to pay for the veterinary fees for Gizmo.

Despite the circumstances, Dave needs to get the dog treatment.

And with its owners absent, he has to seize it.

Gizmo is put in Dave's van to be taken to the vet.

And the tumour is clear to see.

It's up the vet whether they believe the dog's in a suffering state

or what treatment if any we can give this dog.

But it does need seeing to, there's no doubt in my mind.

At the vet, Dave wants to get the dog seen as quickly as possible.

Come on, little one.

In comparison to the dog, it's a large amount of it underneath

and it's virtually touching the floor.

It's severely impeding the way the dog can walk.

You know, it can't move properly because of the weight of this mass.

Vet Chris examines Gizmo.

Very large mammary tumour.

Probably been building up there for a long, long time.

So the owners haven't really responded to that

and treated the dog as they should do.

This poor little dog should have had some veterinary treatment

a long time ago.

I mean, that's huge.

When you see it like that, that is absolutely...

-Bigger than her head, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's massive

It looks serious,

but to Dave's relief Chris thinks it could be removed.

I was concerned with Gizmo, because I thought

I wonder if the vet's going to find a mass that large,

that it would be inoperable.

And it would only be right to have the dog euthanized

on humane grounds.

But even forgetting that, the dog's old,

will it get through the anaesthetic?

It's finally decided that 14-year-old Gizmo

should have the surgery.

Two days later,

and a nervous Dave goes back to check on Gizmo's progress.

You can't believe it, can you? All bright as well.

I vividly remember

when I returned to the vet after Gizmo had her operation.

And I'm so happy to say that dog has made a miraculous recovery.

That's remarkable. You can't believe it, can you?

That dog is just like a different little person.

-Big tumour. 1.1 kilograms.

-Massive.

-Almost as big as the dog.

Good size and she looks a lot happier and now

and more sprightly now and weighs seven kilograms now.

-Instead of 8.1!

-Yes.

I thought it was best that that dog actually went back home

because she's owned by two very caring people.

They are lovely people, they've got health issues,

they've been absolutely helpful throughout the investigation.

Come on, sweet.

They would have loved to have been in that position to help him.

They weren't, so fortunately we've been able to help.

That really is a great ending as far as I'm concerned.

Things don't get much better than that

because we've been able to help Gizmo.

For Gizmo it's time to return to his family.

Can you believe how well she looks?

It was a marvellous moment when we returned Gizmo home

because of course you see the owners delighted to see their dog

and you see the dog delighted to see them.

SHE LAUGHS HAPPILY

Stick him here so he doesn't run away.

That in itself is worth a million dollars.

Britain is home to over a million deer.

And the population is growing.

And with that, the number of road accidents involving them

is also on the rise.

Every year 10,000 deer are severely injured after being hit by vehicles.

Inspector Trevor Walker is on his way to the scene.

I think it's something that we need to deal with immediately.

Can you give me the postcode so I can be heading up that way?

The call came through to me.

He'd seen the deer a number of hours earlier so there was always

the likelihood that the deer had actually disappeared.

And one of the biggest problems we have with wildlife,

because there's not an actual address there, it's always

a problem actually identifying just where the animal is.

It said it appears to be up and it's looking round

which suggests that it's still alive.

But Trevor knows that rehabilitating an injured deer is rarely possible.

Taking a deer into care

and seeking veterinary attention for it is absolutely a no-no.

Deer are a unique creature that cannot be

contained in a closed environment.

It more than often leads to them dying of stress.

Really, really traumatic situation to see them in.

20 yards along. The fence there. And there's the deer.

And lo and behold, as we look, there is a deer,

which is blending quite nicely in with the stubble on the field.

Young roe. That is disorientated, isn't it?

So I'm afraid that doesn't look good at all.

This particular deer still appeared concussed.

It wasn't aware of its surroundings.

I was able to walk almost straight up to the deer

and stand within touching distance.

And it hardly knew I was there.

It's obviously got some kind of a head trauma on it.

There's no sight there.

Can't see my hand when it's moving in front of it.

Blind, there's no way the deer can survive in the wild.

And the stress of captivity would kill it.

So Trevor has no choice.

If I leave it there and it wanders down the field,

it's just going to get predated on.

I think the only sensible thing to do is to deal with it

and that would mean despatching it for its own benefit.

It's a duty that we have to reduce the suffering of the animals.

And this is what was necessary for this deer.

This is a part of the job that we have to do.

And I will do because it's for animal welfare.

There was no other option for this deer.

It's just one of those things that we have to

bear on our conscience, I'm afraid.

No-one likes it,

but that's the reality of being an RSPCA inspector, I'm afraid.

Not every injured wild animal can be saved. But thankfully thousands are.

Every day RSPCA inspectors collect birds and animals in need

of help, and take them to their specialist facilities.

The East Winch Centre in Norfolk has been rehabilitating injured

wildlife for nearly 20 years.

We are pretty much a hospital for the British wildlife.

And we take in about 4,000 to 5,000 patients every year

and hopefully turn them around and get them back out for release.

And it's particularly renowned for its care of

sick, orphaned and injured seals.

Alison Charles looks after the hundreds of seals that

arrive at the centre every year.

We basically cover the whole of the country for seals.

They come in from Scotland, they come in

from down on the south coast and from the Welsh coast as well.

Quite often it's because they've lost their mum.

They're with their mum for three weeks on the beach

and then they go off to sea and feed for themselves.

If they get split from their mum on the beach

then unfortunately they'll end up in here with us.

When they arrive, the pups are kept in isolation,

where the team nurse them around the clock.

For an awful lot of them, they'd die.

Like most of the animals, if they didn't come in here, they'd die.

By the time they come in they're too dehydrated,

they're too emaciated and they're just on their way out unfortunately.

So they need a bit of help.

They're all small, malnourished, dehydrated and it's important

to get their fluid content up and get some food in them.

And that way, injuries that they've got heal quicker

the more nourishment that they've got.

Initially, we stomach tube them

every three hours with oral rehydration solution.

And then we build them up into fish soup.

Stomach tubing looks awful. I have to say, it does look awful

but we find it really is beneficial because we know that they've

definitely got that quantity of food that you're trying to give them.

Seals' rehab is actually quite a long process.

Probably the longest of all the animals that we have.

They're with us for four to five months so obviously

all the way along their process we've been checking they're fit,

they're healthy, they're progressing in the right direction.

After a long recovery, it's time to give this group

of common seals a final check before their release.

I've flicked the switch so this will start to drain down

and the water level will just gently go down until we get it

drained completely and then we can get in and handle them.

Because underwater seal handling's not much fun and they've got

the upper hand on you really, so we'll drain it and make it safe.

Once the pool is drained,

the seals are weighed using some special equipment.

You just pop the seal in, tie the ends so they can't bite on you

or come out and poo on you and then you're away.

And it keeps them nice and stable and secure, really.

And Alison's got a novel way of identifying each seal.

It gets very confusing when you've got 20 seals all next door

to each other on different drugs and different feeds,

so we name them basically to keep us straight.

And we just name them after a theme.

This year we voted for the Olympic Games.

There's Flying Rings, there's Coxless Pair, Pommel Horse...

There's Ellie Simmonds, of course,

she's in there because she's quite good at swimming.

So, yeah, there's Roger Bannister as well

so there's all sorts of seals in there.

Now it's drained, we're going to pop into the bottom of the pool.

Hopefully it's not too slippery this morning.

Put the scales down, catch them, see if they're up to weight

and hopefully get them back into the van.

There you go, you've got to be quick.

On the day, we'd like them to be 35 kilos before we release them.

And that's just so they've got a little bit of fat,

a little bit of excess weight on them

so they can find their fish when they get out there in The Wash.

36. Very good.

That one's 36 so that's spot on.

That's Tug Of War and... Not quite an Olympic sport but yes,

he's off back to sea.

One at a time please, boys and girls.

Two.

Next one is Pommel Horse.

All the way along, we're trying not to get them to like us.

The last thing we want to do is to be happy about us handling them.

It's great if they don't want to be handled.

It's exactly the way wild animals should be when they're released.

They should be feisty and wanting to be wild.

The next one is Shot Put, which is 85.

That's really good, 35.5.

She can go. It's Ellie Simmonds. She's back to sea.

It's just a little thing but if it's 35 kilos then yay!

Ooh 39! We like that.

That's Duncan Goodhew so he's off for a swim as well.

So Ellie and Duncan are going for a swim shortly.

That's great stuff. He's nice and heavy so it's ideal.

Last time we weighed them they weren't anywhere near so they've put

on a lot of weight over Christmas, just like some other folks, I guess.

And, yeah, they're ready to go. It's good stuff.

But for some, freedom will have to wait a few more weeks.

-32.5.

-He's not up to weight.

He's going to have to stay in for a little while longer.

We've got six, which is great, more than I anticipated.

So that's very good.

Release is, contrary to popular belief,

everybody thinks they're really sad but they're not,

they're great, it's the best part of the job.

That's why we all work here, really.

We put up with the bad days of trying to get them through being

very, very sick and nursing them to make up with it on the release days.

Get off now cos it is a squeeze. Get straight up the road. Yay!

We are off to Sutton Bridge, which is just inside Lincolnshire.

And it's the river that leads out into The Wash.

Because the tide's going out, the seals get flushed out into The Wash

and it takes them to the sandbanks where the other seals are,

so it's just the right spot for them to go out to.

But there are some big potential hazards on the river.

When we're at Sutton Bridge, my biggest concern is that

some huge boat comes flying down the river and gets them,

hits them basically, so I have to keep my eyes peeled

and just check that there's nothing coming in the river.

With the coast clear, it's time to return the seals to the water.

Now we're going to open up the front end of the stretchers

and hopefully they're going to head towards the water.

But we'll see.

They are young naive animals and this is all new to them.

So I don't expect them to rush.

This is fabulous, ideal conditions.

The river's going out really fast and it's nice and calm and flat.

And as you can see, they are going down there very nicely.

So good, yeah. All going well.

They're both hanging onto each other for grim death.

It's like, ooh this is new. Cos that's going really fast.

You wouldn't want to be in there trying to swim against that.

Six seals are back on track and heading out to sea.

It's great. It's what it's all about.

It's the best piece of the work that we do, really.

It's fantastic.

You hope that they have a long and healthy and happy life.

But it's down to them. It's not up to us any more.

Not my responsibility - it's them.

-This one's ready for off.

-That's cos he's Duncan Goodhew!

He should be in there. He should be in The Wash.

But with her new found freedom,

one seal has decided to do exactly what she wants.

She's eating wood and they quite often do

when they come down here - they start eating wood.

That's fine. It's up to her, she can do whatever she likes now.

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