Episode 8 Animal Frontline

-RSPCA Control Centre.

-Is the cat still breathing?

-'No.'

-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 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 front line.

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, a stomach of iron...

..and a sense of humour.

Today...the eight Labradors terrified of the outdoors.

He absolutely doesn't know what to do, does he?

Inspector Lorna Campbell deals with an irritating problem.

I think people think it's normal for a cat or a dog to have fleas.

It's not normal, it's just common.

And a call to a frightened feline in need of help.

Animal neglect can take many different forms.

Providing a clean, safe home

and socialising your pet is as important as feeding it.

In Manchester, a call has come in about a houseful of cats

and dogs living in terrible conditions.

Inspector Jason Bowles is investigating.

I'm going to a house now. Um...

apparently, there's faeces all over the floor.

And...that's a quite common complaint,

but, er...this one's apparently got faeces up the walls, as well,

so it's, er...it could be quite serious.

And at the house, the first signs aren't good.

So as soon as I got out of the van,

considering there's a driveway, I could actually smell the house.

I can smell...the inside of the house from the outside,

which isn't a good sign.

You could hear the commotion inside.

There was a few dogs' heads poking out of the window.

BARKING

You can look from the outside here, the window's broken for a start.

So that's a danger to the animals inside.

And then after a while of banging and clattering,

and doors opening and shutting inside, the lady came to the door.

-Just explain what the call was saying...

-Go on. Sorry.

..because it may not be true at all.

Basically, there's lots of dogs inside

and there's poo up the walls and on the floor...

Poo up the walls?! That is disgusting!

Tried to talk her into letting me in. Um...didn't work.

And in short, er...refused me entry. Wouldn't let me in.

Concerned for the animals inside, Jason calls the police for help.

I'm outside the property now on the driveway,

so if someone could come as soon as possible, I'd be grateful.

For someone not to let you in,

it kind of obviously arouses your suspicions even more.

Coupled together with the conditions I can smell

and see from the outside,

we definitely need to get inside that house to have a look.

The police arrive and the owner lets them inside.

As soon as the door was opened, it was horrible.

You could hardly breathe.

There's a really strong smell of ammonia in here.

On a level of one to ten of badness, it was ten.

Faeces all over the floor...up the wall.

Um...built up underneath the furniture.

The conditions inside that house were...

I would say uninhabitable for human or animal.

The conditions in here, even the smell,

can you not smell the smell in here?

And then I was introduced to the front room.

BARKING Whoa!

What I can describe as a pack of dogs living there.

BARKING

So there's...one, two, three, four, five big dogs.

In total, there are eight Labradors at the house

and two of them are pregnant.

Shall we go in another room from the dogs, so we can talk?

Jason isn't just concerned about the hygiene,

but also the way the dogs are behaving.

This person had no control over these dogs whatsoever.

Although they were friendly, they didn't seem to be very socialised.

BARKING Hello.

My heart's sinking, basically.

It's not something I could sort out there and then

by working with this person.

It looks to me like it's so bad

that we're going to have to remove these animals and work from there.

Jason needs to get a vet's opinion before he can seize the animals.

And after looking inside,

vet Sean Taylor confirms they need to be removed.

The actual environment of the house is unsuitable.

So they need removing. OK. Right.

Jason knows the dogs aren't used to being handled.

And he's going to need help getting them out.

This is Jason to all of N3.

I've got five adult dogs,

three puppies and four cats I need removing.

Is there anyone else that can come and help me?

Two RSPCA colleagues arrive and the team can now start the evacuation.

As we took them out of the property,

they completely freaked out as soon as they went outside.

As if they'd never been outside before.

With the door open, two of the dogs

get a sniff of freedom and make a run for it.

Hello.

Could have turned into a bit of a nightmare

with loose dogs running around the local area.

-Come on.

-But, luckily, we caught them.

But while some of the dogs seem thrilled to finally be outside,

others have a very different reaction.

They're overwhelmed and clearly terrified.

They just completely shut down, some of them,

and wouldn't even move, so they had to be carried out.

-It's not been outside that house, has it, this one?

-Ever.

-He's absolute...doesn't know what to do, does he?

-No.

It's just totally irresponsible to keep animals like that.

You're causing a problem in their lives

that they possibly won't get over.

You haven't socialised them, got them used to normal living.

How are they going to cope?

Whoa! You're a big doggy.

All eight dogs are finally rescued from the house.

Thankfully, they are in reasonable health,

but Jason thinks the rescue came just in time.

These dogs, with the amount of animals inside that house

and the conditions,

weren't having even their most basic needs met.

So it's just a really sad situation.

I'm very, very glad we got called to that address

and that we were able to remove them from that situation.

The dogs are taken to nearby kennels,

where the future for all the animals looks brighter.

And two months on, little Dylan here already has a new family.

Born a few days after his mother was removed from the house,

Dylan will never know the conditions he was rescued from

and will grow up in a clean and loving home.

20023 accept.

In Birkenhead, Inspector Anthony Joynes

is on his way to this very familiar problem.

RSPCA to the rescue.

Cat rescues are one of the most

frequent things that we do. It's just that cats are just very good

at getting themselves in trouble.

Roofs, tops of trees, stuck in things and...

cats are just a nightmare for us, really.

And climbing 30 feet is Anthony's own worse nightmare.

I love heights, as well(!)

Can you sense the sarcasm?

Because I don't like heights really.

How high is 30 foot?

I can see the cat from here. Um...

I could see the cat as soon as I arrived

and, um...it looked pretty high up.

Puss-ss-ss! Puss-ss-ss!

Hello, pussycat.

What you doing, eh?

I'm wondering whether we have a go ourselves.

MIAOW

First thoughts were obviously it was quite high up and I'd kind of...

get me Superman vest on and those sorts of thoughts,

and wanting to save it meself.

So I just wanted to make sure I had a go at it.

If my ladders can go two thirds of the way up,

I might be able to grab it meself.

And big heights call for big ladders.

Heaviest ladders in the world.

I don't think these are going to reach.

The main thing was just to get the cat down.

So, um...got my ladders up.

No chance.

Our training is supposed to give us the best chance to do it ourselves.

MIAOW

It's calling out to me, so it obviously wants to come down.

It's scared, so...if I go up there,

it might even come onto the lower branches for me to grab it.

So, um...I'll put a silly blue hat on

and, er...walk up there and have a look.

People are probably driving past thinking, "Look at him - wally!"

But I'm not bothered at all because it needs to come down.

Time for Anthony to face his fears.

Hello. Puss-ss-ss-ss-ss!

-You're scared, aren't you? Come on.

-MIAOW

Come on, then.

Hello. Come on.

-MIAOW

-Come on, then.

But this cat is determined to stay just out of reach.

I almost had it, as well.

For his second attempt at rescue, Anthony is taking no chances.

These are what I'm entrusting so I don't get my fingers bitten.

It's got a cut on its nose.

I think possibly it's been attacked by a dog

or something scared it up there and it doesn't want to come down.

But now it wants to, but it's stuck, so, um...

..let's give this a whirl.

Anthony doesn't give up easily.

This time, he's moved the ladder to get even higher.

I went right up to the last rung

and I was literally stood right onto the last rung.

Can you come to here?

Come to here. It'll be a lot easier for me. Hey, come on.

I've had cats up trees before

where you know they're not going to come down.

They're that high up and that scared, they will sit there.

Usually the crows and the magpies are having a pop at them

and they'll just sit there until they're too weak.

Oh, yeah. Good girl. Come on, then.

And I've just managed to stroke the cat.

But I was too... I was out of reach and I was going to kill meself.

A frustrated Anthony finally admits defeat.

I'm taking too much of a risk. Um...that's the one attempt, really.

I think if I could scruff it and scruff it safely, then I would,

but I think I wouldn't have full control of the cat

or myself at that height

and I'm not doing it or myself any justice, really.

So let's get the fire brigade out.

I've got a cat stuck up a tree.

I've tried myself, but I'm five or six foot out of reach,

so I could do with some assistance, please.

Luckily for the cat, the local fire brigade are free to help

and are soon on the scene.

-Let's go and have a look.

-All right. MIAOW

With the professionals on site,

it's time for daredevil Anthony to step down.

These guys were just keen to get the cat down straight away,

so I was more than happy to stand and watch, really.

Is it worth me going up the other side or not?

-What are you going to do with it?

-I would scruff it.

I imagine it might bite if it's scared.

MIAOW

Doesn't look very pretty the way you scruff the cat or whatever,

but that's... You want to make sure you get that cat confined

because if you let go of it, it'll run in front of the nearest car.

MIAOW

-And he's brought the cat straight back down.

-MIAOW

Job well done, really.

Put him in here till he calms down so he doesn't run off.

He's got a collar on, it's obviously an owned cat.

Somebody's going to be looking for this, so, um...

I'll check it for a chip, as well.

I'll just run it down to the local animal centre and, um...

hopefully someone's going to claim it.

Cheers for that, mate. Thanks very much again.

All right. Take care, guys. See you later. Bye.

When I took the cat into me van and had a quick look at it,

my initial thoughts were it's not injured,

it's been scared up the tree.

So we took it straight to the local RSPCA branch and it was fine.

But at the centre, there's no sign of a microchip,

making identifying the owner difficult.

Unfortunately, the owners haven't come forward. It wasn't reunited,

which is a shame but, luckily, a new family have come forward

and took Lily home and it's a happy ending.

You're absolutely lovely.

Loving animals is part of the job description for RSPCA inspectors.

But there's one creature they'd all like to see a little less of.

Fleas.

Fleas are the bane of my life. I hate them. With a passion.

How often do I see animals with fleas not getting treated?

Every day. Every day.

"Yeah, yeah, we know it's got fleas."

Flea problems are huge.

And I think, "Oh, my God!"

Today, Inspector Lorna Campbell is in Manchester

to check out a dog who may have a major flea problem.

I think people think

it's normal for a cat or a dog to have fleas.

It's not normal, it's just common.

At some point in their life, an animal will end up getting fleas.

But that doesn't mean it's normal.

I'm from the RSPCA. I've had a call about your dog having fleas

and being a bit underweight.

The owner lets Lorna in

and introduces Fudge, the Highland terrier.

When we went into the property, I was quite surprised to find that

he had no fur loss, but was extremely itchy.

So, have you done anything about him scratching?

Well, I've been trying, you know. I've always done my best.

And do you know whether he's got fleas now?

-He might have.

-Yeah.

No-one's perfect, are they?

She almost said, "Yeah, he's got fleas, so what?"

I don't think she realised just how uncomfortable this dog was.

So he has still got fleas. I can see them crawling on him.

I'm sure we've probably all been bitten by one mosquito on holiday

and how itchy that one bite is.

And it's kind of like that.

So if he's got ten fleas biting him constantly,

then it's really itchy and it's really uncomfortable for the dog.

It's not acceptable to have fleas on your dog.

It is really easy to treat fleas,

so you really need to get this under control.

If you go to the vets', because the stuff from the shop won't work.

He's so infested with fleas

that the shop stuff, you're going to be wasting your money.

You're probably looking at about 20 quid.

It'll give you three months' worth for 20 quid.

It's just that me partner's left me and I'm high in debt

and I've not been able to have any money to survive on.

There will always be a reason why the animal is being neglected.

And in this situation, which is a common one, especially now,

finances were a major part.

But that's fine. We can solve that.

And in this situation, I offered to pay for the vet

so that she only had to pay for the flea treatment.

So I said, "There's no point wasting your money on going to the pet shop

"and spending however much on shop-bought.

"You need to get a prescription and get the strong flea treatment.

"That's the only way this is going to get solved."

Right, mister. I'll see you in a week, then.

Yeah? Flea free.

All right. So I'll ring the vets' now and sort that out for you

and then I'll come and see you next week.

-All right? Thank you.

-Bye.

I made it absolutely clear that she must go to the vets'

and get veterinary-prescribed products for the fleas,

and then I left the property

really believing that when I went back,

the dog would have been to the vets'

and I would see a nice box of flea treatment on the windowsill.

Hi, it's Lorna from the RSPCA.

But a week later, a call to the vet shatters Lorna's optimism.

OK. And she's not made an appointment for tomorrow at all?

Nothing?

All right. Ta-ra. Bye.

I rang that vet to see if she'd gone.

And she'd made an appointment and cancelled,

made another one and then not turned up.

Hiya. I've come to see how you're getting on with Fudge.

So I was interested to see what her reasoning was for that.

I am trying to keep them under control. I really am trying.

So, what have you done? Because I know you didn't go to the vets'.

-That's because of money problems.

-Right.

When I examined the dog on that second visit,

he was still crawling with fleas,

but this time, he had an open sore on his shoulder

that was slightly bleeding because he'd scratched himself even more so.

-I have got some flea stuff.

-Right.

Which I've got meself, but he's still got them.

Right. But I did specifically say, and I even wrote on that notice,

that shop-bought products wouldn't work

-and that you needed to go to the vets'.

-Yeah.

-How much did you spend at the shop?

-About ten.

Even though I told you it wouldn't work.

-You've spent ten quid and you've achieved nothing, haven't you?

-Yeah.

I was just so gobsmacked that she'd done that

because we'd discussed the fact that these products hadn't worked

and she'd just wasted her money, basically.

If you can't provide him with the flea treatment he needs,

then you can't have this dog.

I made it clear to her that, you know, this is getting serious now.

So, what do you want to do?

If I give you a notice giving you a week to get to the vets',

-are you realistically going to do it?

-I'm going to do it, yeah.

In that instance, I actually cautioned her

and I gave her a formal animal welfare warning notice.

That meant if she failed to take the dog to the vets' in that time period,

I would go back and take the dog off her.

-So if you ring them up and make an appointment.

-OK.

Maybe for Wednesday, yeah? I don't want to have to take him off you.

I want you to sort this out.

I think once she was cautioned

and understood that she might lose this dog,

that was when I think it set in.

"OK, I've got to do this now."

-I shall see you next week. All right?

-Right.

Without a doubt, he is suffering because he's got fleas.

So at the end of the day, that's an offence.

It's a criminal offence

to leave your animal suffering, and that what she's doing.

So she's got seven days now to do what I asked her to do weeks ago.

And if she hasn't done it, then I'm left with no option

but to take the dog off her and take her to court for it.

One week on and Fudge is finally a happy dog.

She did it, she got the flea treatment.

And when I went around to see her,

I was surprised to find she'd also had the dog fully vaccinated.

He'd been bathed, clipped, taken to the groomers,

he smelt lovely, he had not a single flea on him.

That's the satisfaction you get knowing job well done.

Because I know for the rest of this dog's life,

she will never let him get fleas again.

She knows what to do now.

East Winch in Norfolk

is one of the RSPCA's four specialist wildlife centres.

Every year, manager Alison Charles oversees more than 4,000 cases

of sick and injured animals.

The majority of our patients are birds.

Various species. I think we've had

226 species of birds in over the years,

which is phenomenal.

For birds of prey in particular, it can be a long road to recovery.

You take them in, you admit them.

Most of the birds need a vet check before they're taken into the wards.

A lot of them will have wounds, or they'll have been hit by cars,

or they need to have an eye exam in the case of the birds of prey.

If these guys have got to go back out in the wild,

they need to have pretty perfect vision

and pretty perfect flight to be able to survive.

That eye looks good.

As they improve, they can move on to the next stage.

So everything goes on in little stages.

Once serious injuries have been treated

and the birds are stabilised,

they're moved out to the aviaries.

This is a tawny.

And we'll just check that he's OK and, um...flying.

When they get to the aviary stage, we're quite happy with them.

They should be able to fly a little bit.

And it's just feeding them up,

making sure that they're fit and healthy.

Well, he's been in for quite some time.

It took a while to recover in isolation,

but it has pulled through that stage.

We've got it to eat well and it's now here and it's flying,

but it's not flying as well as we'd expect at this stage.

And even when the birds appear fully recovered,

there is one final stop on their way back to the wild.

This state-of-the-art aviary allows Alison and her team

to assess whether even the largest birds are fit to fly.

We've got an absolutely fabulous flight aviary.

It's just really changed what we do with wildlife.

It's the finishing touches to birds of prey's rehab, certainly.

This kestrel is ready to go in here and see how he flies,

so I'll just let him out.

So we'll just get him out and pop him...

So the idea is to see how it flies.

And it flew quite well, actually, it flew quite even.

And both wings were equal and, you know, quite strong.

And that's what we want to do, check that it's a nice strong flight

and that it's able to cope when we release it.

And with cameras inside, human contact can be kept to a minimum,

which is vital if they're to return to the wild.

We also use the cameras in there, so it's to see how they're flying.

To see if their wings are even,

to see how their flight is as they go from one end to the other.

And it's much better to be able to observe them without us being there.

It means that we're not there stressing them.

In the past, we used to release herons from the smaller aviaries.

And the first time we put one in here, I was absolutely stunned.

I put it in here and it couldn't fly the length of the aviary.

And you think, "We would have released it in the past."

So all herons now have to come in here,

have at least two weeks' flight and then we'll release them.

Today, two long-term residents are finally ready to return to the wild.

These guillemots were both caught in an oil slick,

but after weeks of rehabilitation,

they're now ready to return to the sea.

One's from Lincolnshire, and one's from the Norfolk coast.

They were both oiled. When they came in, they were little black birds

and they're now black-and-white birds again.

Try and catch them, pop them in a box and drive them up to the coast.

And then it's the release for them.

Guillemots are quite feisty, actually.

You've got to be careful.

They're very quick to peck you

and they've got quite a sharp beak, dare I say it.

Don't mess around with guillemots

because they tend to give you a slashed wrist.

The main thing is I don't hurt them.

You just want to do it quickly and efficiently.

That's great, nice and smooth. We're off already.

With the guillemots boxed and ready to go,

Alison heads off to the Norfolk coast.

They were so sick when they came in,

but we're really quite pleased with them

and hope that they have a good chance of survival.

They've had every chance we could possibly give them

and now it's over to them.

But hopefully, we'll not see them again for a long, long time.

With guillemots, we like them to be going out into the North Sea

so they can join the other rafts out there.

You never quite know how guillemot releases are going to go.

You let them out of the box and you never quite know

whether they'll turn back up the beach and head inland

or whether they're going to go out to sea.

What I'm going to do is literally open the box and tip him out

and let him go in his own time.

Whoop! He didn't think much of that. Wahey!

Our job is to rehabilitate animals.

And this is the final story.

It's wonderful to see them just fly away and off they've gone.

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

That's really good.

He dived and went under the waves, which is very nice.

We have the joy of seeing it go at the end of the process

and you know you've got a healthy animal back out there

that wouldn't have been out there unless you'd done your work.

So it's good stuff, I think.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd