Episode 9 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, Inspector Dave McAdam rescues a dog in squalid conditions.

If that was my dog, I'd be devastated if someone was treating my dog like that.

A heron is all wrapped up and in need of help.

Cos it's sort of shut the beak closed,

if he can't get that off, it could be life-threatening.

And the fight to save a dog hit by a car.

I don't know how he didn't see her, but he just ran straight over her

-and carried on.

-Right.

And what animal is the call regarding, please?

After cats and dogs, rabbits are Britain's most popular pet.

And sadly, RSPCA statistics show they're also the most neglected.

So, the main concern is they're living in dirty conditions?

Rabbits are traditionally seen

when the family decides that the child has got to the age

where they need a bit of responsibility

and, "Oh, let's get them a pet."

And a rabbit seems to be the first thing that everyone goes for.

At the RSPCA National Control Centre,

calls about these furry family pets are all too common.

In Stockport, Inspector Lorna Campbell

is on her way to this latest call.

A dead rabbit in a hutch sounds serious,

but Lorna's sceptical about what she'll find.

I've had this call before about dead rabbits in hutches.

And it's always been some big well-fed, well-looked-after rabbit,

that's just lazy and is asleep at the front of the hutch all the time.

I'll be quite surprised if there's a dead rabbit

and it's been there six days and no-one's moved it.

I don't think that's going to be the case, but you never know.

Stranger things have happened.

So when I got there, there was no answer at the door.

I knocked quite loudly a couple of times

and I didn't get any reply at the door, so I went round to the back,

down a ginnel and straight away, you could see the hutch door was off.

And Lorna makes an unpleasant discovery.

OK. So there is a dead rabbit in a hutch.

How strange. Why you would just leave it in the hutch for things to eat it.

It is the first time that I've had a dead rabbit in a hutch.

But I wasn't necessarily thinking the worst,

I just thought, "Perhaps this rabbit had died of old age,"

and it was so difficult to tell, I couldn't tell if it was skinny,

I couldn't tell whether it had any injuries.

It was so decomposed, I was just hoping that it died naturally.

It's got food and water bowls and a relatively clean bed.

There's a bit of muck in there, but nothing like...

..mega bad to suggest it's just been left for ages.

I wasn't really thinking along the lines

of a cruelty case, straight off.

It's going to have been there about a week, that.

So, it'll be very difficult

to try and prove why it went, it's just too far decomposed.

But I'll certainly be asking questions as to why

it's not been buried or disposed of.

Why you would just leave it to rot in your garden.

It's not what most people would do.

I mean, obviously, there's kids living here

with all the toys. You just wouldn't want the kids coming out here

with the rabbit dead in the hutch, would you?

It's just not really the normal response, but...

we don't know what the circumstances are until we speak to the occupants.

And it looks like Lorna IS about to get some answers.

Suddenly, it emerges there IS someone home after all.

It was a bit strange when the owner then came to the door.

And my instant reaction is, "Why have you not answered the door?

"I've been knocking for ages, I've just been in your garden.

"What's going on?"

-I were knocking before. From the RSPCA.

-Yeah?

-We've had a call about your rabbit.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Cos it looks like no-one's been out and done anything about it.

Yeah, I saw the cage door open. I wouldn't go out.

What do you mean you wouldn't go out? Why?

Because I thought it was dead. Because the cage door's been open!

-You thought it was dead but you didn't go and look?

-Yeah.

-When did you think it was dead?

-Just a few hours ago, didn't I?

That anger inside you, you're trying to control it.

You're trying to get what you need out of the person

but it was probably just a bit difficult for me

to control my anger and I just blurted out just straight away

without thinking, "You're lying!"

-That's a complete lie.

-Why?

-Because it's decomposed.

-Is it?

-Yeah. So when was the last time you went out to the rabbit?

The actual truth was, she'd left it to starve to death.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you don't mention when questioned something you later rely on in court

-and anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?

-Really?

-Yeah. Really.

You've got a dead rabbit in the garden and you've admitted nobody's looking after it.

-So I wonder why it's died, then? Yeah?

-Yeah.

I'm going to get some paperwork and I'll do an interview with you.

All right? I'll just come in now as soon as I get the paperwork.

All right.

I am so shocked.

I just can't believe what I've just been told.

She's just basically admitted that she...

hasn't been out to see the rabbit for a couple of days

and she's been away and had no-one looking after it while she was away.

So my instant thought now is that rabbit has died of starvation or dehydration.

Because this may now become a criminal case,

Lorna needs to interview the owner under caution.

I think I said to her, "Has anyone been to look after the rabbit

"whilst you've been away?", and she said, "I don't know."

So before you went away, what did you do with regards to the rabbit?

I said, "Well, have you asked anyone?" Did you ask anyone?

"No. Well, no-one's been then, have they?"

There's not just some random stranger going to walk down the alley

and think, "You're away, so I'm going to feed your rabbit for you."

It was just such a bizarre thing to say,

like how can you not know this is your rabbit,

it's your responsibility to organise this? How can you not know?

So, if you had to have a guess at why it died, what would you think?

She confirmed to me that it was probably a case of

out of sight, out of mind and that she'd completely forgot about it.

This family pet is now evidence in a criminal case.

There was just no remorse whatsoever that she had just killed an animal.

It was almost like, "Oops! Yeah, shouldn't have done that."

"Never mind." It's pretty shocking, really.

There's just no excuse for it.

Four months later, Lorna went to court

to see the owner plead guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

She was banned from keeping animals for ten years, and fined £130.

The RSPCA seeks to have someone disqualified from keeping an animal.

If someone's mistreated an animal or caused an animal suffering

and, in this case, caused an animal to die,

then we don't want that person to be able to own an animal

for a significant period of time to protect animals

from them in the future.

You think that we're a nation of animal lovers.

Until you're in my position

and you see the awful things that people can do.

It was a complete act of cruelty.

Even pet owners who love their animals can need the RSPCA's help.

The cost of private vet treatment

means the charity's Manchester Animal Hospital is always busy.

And there are certain days of the year,

they see more patients than ever.

Each year we see about 30,000 outpatients at the hospital.

We have hotspots at certain times of the year,

for example, around Bonfire Night.

When fireworks are going off, animals are distressed...

Dally? And this was one such case.

-Hiya.

-You all right?

-Fine, thank you.

-OK, who've we got here then?

-We've got Tilly.

-Yeah.

We got her on Saturday evening, so we've only had her a couple of days.

So we picked her up, took her home.

We got her out of the car and she was fine. She was on a lead,

with a collar on.

-And then a firework went off.

-Oh, God.

So she backed out of her collar,

and unfortunately, she ran up a busy main road

-and a car went straight over the top of her.

-This was Saturday?

-Saturday evening at twenty-past six.

-Right.

In just two days, Tony Dally has spent £650

at a private vet and he's unable to afford any further treatment.

-Can we lower her onto the table and have a look at her.

-Come on, Tilly.

He's hoping the Manchester Animal Hospital can help.

I'd pretty much run out of money by dinnertime today.

-Right.

-And they wanted to take an X-ray of her back end,

because she's not stood up on her back legs yet.

This dog had just had one heck of a traumatic 24 hours.

It's got a new owner, we've got fireworks going off,

so we've got about as much change in its environment

and as much stress as any dog could possibly experience.

And have you seen her bleeding from anywhere?

-Yes, she had blood around her eye and a little cut here.

-Yeah.

And she's got a little scuffing on one of her back legs.

-She's got quite a bit of bruising on that eye.

-Yeah.

You saw the accident, did you?

Yeah. I was running up the road behind her.

-How exactly did it hit her?

-Right at the front of the car.

-He just ran straight over her and carried on.

-Right.

Tilly's cuts and bruises aren't overly concerning David.

But the possibility of serious internal injuries are.

It was quiet a nasty accident, it involved pelvic and chest damage.

David is concerned. Tilly's injuries might be too severe to treat.

If there's damage on both ball and socket joints

then we'll probably tell you that that's not the best

-for your dog's long-term future.

-Yeah.

So we may think about things like, you know,

-whether you want to put her to sleep. You know?

-Yeah.

Owner Tony has only had Tilly for a few days.

But the possibility of losing her is clearly distressing.

In the consulting room, we've got two elements of stress to deal with.

One is the pet's distress and pain and discomfort.

The more difficult side of the job is dealing with the owner's emotions.

She's a huge part of the family, even though I've only had her for three days.

She's not even been in the house yet.

He's just taken on this pet,

everything from him acquiring the pet has then been unplanned.

You know, the traffic accident, him taking it to a vet

and finding out the extent of the injury. Running out of funds.

His concern for the animal.

-OK, great stuff.

-All right. I'll give you a bell when it's done.

-Brilliant. Thanks a lot.

-OK.

-Tilly is taken away for an X-ray.

-Fingers crossed.

-Yeah.

All right, Tilly.

First, she's sedated.

X-rays!

And within seconds, there's an X-ray image that shows serious damage.

So, this is the spine and the tail.

We've got quite a nasty fracture on this part of the pelvis

and underneath, as well. It's a little bit separated

off the main part of the spine.

Critically, though, Tilly's spine is not fractured.

That would have been quite alarming for us.

Maybe even requiring us to put her to sleep.

He was quite lucky with what happened.

He got a bit of a narrow escape there.

David is hopeful Tilly will make a full recovery.

But it's been a stressful few days for Tilly's owner Tony,

who now knows the full cost of being a pet owner.

We need to make sure that when we've taken on a pet,

during its lifetime, it's not just the cost of the pet,

it's the many thousands of pounds we will spend on food, vaccination,

grooming, veterinary care.

There are lots of things that we need to plan for

when we take on a pet.

-And weeks later, Tilly is home, up and about and fighting fit.

-Tilly!

Without the assistance of the Animal Hospital,

the outcome could have been very different.

I'd be a lot in debt,

because I would have had to keep her at the other place.

And at the rate it was, it was like over £250 a day.

I would have just run up a big bill

and I would have had to take out a loan to pay it all back.

Nobody plans a traffic accident,

nobody plans for the dog to have a nasty tumour.

And some of the costs associated with care nowadays can be alarming.

Good girl!

Pet ownership isn't a cheap hobby. It's an expensive luxury.

She's worth it.

She's healthy now.

And she's happy.

London.

A place where people and wildlife live together in close proximity.

But when the two worlds collide,

it's often the animals and birds that come off worse.

Inspector Natasha Wallis has received a call

about a bird in difficulty on the bank of the River Thames.

The call was for a heron with maybe some rope

or some sort of netting wrapped around its beak.

It was right at the tip of the beak, so it couldn't open it.

And it was on a jetty, as well.

It's just on that one over there.

It looks like it's fishing netting.

It's a problem because we get a lot of it.

We get a lot of geese, herons, swans,

because people don't dispose of their lines properly.

Because it's sort of shut the beak closed,

if he can't get that off, it could be life-threatening.

When people don't dispose of fishing tackle properly,

it's the animal's life that's in danger.

If he doesn't get it off, he's not going to be able to feed.

If he can't feed, he's pretty much going to die of starvation.

Natasha needs to get a closer look at the heron,

but she's unsure how to get to it.

Luckily, she finds a local business

that has CCTV looking onto the river.

-That's the one!

-Oh, no!

They managed to bring up their CCTV and zoom in

so we could see the actual heron

sort of sitting on the pole at the end of the jetty.

-How would I get on to the jetty?

-A ladder.

Well, there's a ladder to get down to the bottom,

but then to get to the actual jetty, it's probably deep.

Yeah, I know. I'd have to get through that.

It's not good news.

Even if Natasha arranged a boat to try and get to the heron,

it would probably fly off in fright.

If you can see, like, this water, it looks deep already.

There's no way you'd be able to get across, unless you had a boat.

Unfortunately, there's very little we can do.

Because he's on a jetty on a pole

and there's no other injuries, apart from the rope around his beak.

You barely stand a chance.

He's just going to fly off as soon as you get any closer to him.

So it's very frustrating.

SQUAWKING

Either he'll have to get it off himself,

or he'll end up somewhere where we'll get another call for it,

or that's him, I'm afraid.

It's...there's sort of three options.

And that's quite sad, really, because you're there to sort of help animals.

And all it takes it a little snip-snip-snip and away they go,

but they don't want to come near you

and you can't sort of give that help, you know.

-Hiya.

-No luck?

-No.

I was wondering, um...if possible, whether you could keep an eye on him.

With that case, the only thing I can do, really,

is ask the receptionist to keep an eye on him

because they've got good cameras.

So as long as they can monitor where he is and how he's getting along,

and also if he comes down to the bank, to give us a call

because we might have a better chance of getting him.

I did go the next day and the day after, but...

you know, he'd flown off.

So that's a good sign.

So hopefully he's flown off somewhere and managed to get it off.

So fingers crossed he has.

Though Natasha failed to rescue this bird,

hopefully her next job will have a happier ending.

RSPCA inspectors often have to make difficult decisions

about whether to remove an animal from its home.

It's one of the toughest parts of the job,

but Inspector Dave McAdam has his own philosophy.

Every time I make a decision about the way an animal's being kept,

I use a simple method to work out whether it's reasonable or not.

And it is simply this, would I leave my dog in this position?

Would I leave my cat in that position?

And if not, well, things are going to have to change.

Dave's latest call is to an apartment block

-being renovated in Chesterfield.

-BARKING

Reports say a dog has been left unattended

inside one of the flats for five days.

He's brought along PC Steve O'Callaghan,

who can legally seize the dog if necessary.

KNOCK AT DOOR

We always try to ascertain if someone is returning to a property.

And the way we do it is generally by putting tape seals

in between the door and frame and over the keyhole locks.

There you go, mate. See that? That's still sealed.

-No-one's been back.

-No-one's been back.

It was obvious that no-one was returning to the property.

-So what we'll do, we'll go up the...

-Scaffolding.

-We'll go up the scaffolding.

-We'll get a better look at it.

Determined to get a look at the dog,

Dave uses the builder's ladders and scaffolding to investigate.

BARKING

We've got sort of a Lab-cross dog,

mainly black, white on the chest.

Living in...just an absolute tip of a house, quite frankly.

There's about five or six piles of dog faeces that I can see.

We've just got clothes scattered and rubbish scattered around

and it's just not a suitable environment for animals to live in.

To me, they can't look after it properly.

That's not good enough.

If that was my dog, I'd be devastated

if someone was treating my dog like that.

BARKING

Animals like dogs, they're social animals.

They need to spend time with their owners.

It's not fair and it's not right that they're left on their own.

They need to go out for walks.

They don't want to defecate and urinate in their own environment.

Dave's able to trace the dog owner's mother, who has a key to the flat.

Is there any way you can meet us down here, love?

After a quick call, Dawn is on scene,

allowing Dave and Steve to get inside.

-Hello, sweetheart! It's a nice dog, isn't it?

-It is nice.

-It seems quite protective, doesn't it?

-Exactly.

You don't know why the dog has been left?

I don't know, to be honest with you. I've no idea.

Seeing the conditions that Jasmine the dog has been left in

is upsetting to all, especially Dawn.

Would you agree, Dawn, it's not suitable to leave...?

-No, it isn't.

-You can't leave it like that.

-It's cruel!

-I know it is.

Don't you worry, love, because you're helping us.

I hate to see people when they're upset.

You know, especially when I'm doing my utmost

not only to help them, but to help the animals they're in charge of.

You're not in any trouble at all.

I appreciate you coming over so quick.

You see people upset like that and you have to empathise.

You have to be a reasonable human being yourself.

What I'll do, love...

No, no, nothing like that, love. No, no.

No, it's nothing like that.

No, not at all. Nothing like that.

You can't start getting all annoyed

because the animal's been left in conditions you don't agree with.

You know, you've got to treat people with respect,

as you would hope they would treat you.

Dawn gives Dave the number of her daughter, Jasmine's owner,

but he can't get through.

But there's no way he's leaving without Jasmine.

When you look at that, I can't leave the dog like that.

I just can't leave it.

Put yourself in that position. How would you like it?

And the same for Jasmine, you know.

I wouldn't want to have to stay in one room

and defecate and urinate in a corner near to where I was sitting.

And neither does the dog.

I can get my friend here in the police

to seize it under section 19 as evidence.

And you've got to remember, we're probably the only species

that actually keeps another animal purely for pleasure.

Now, with that brings quite a huge obligation.

It's a huge responsibility.

Dave's decision was the right one.

Jasmine escaped unscathed.

A few days later, the owner agreed to sign her over to the RSPCA.

So she can now be put up for re-homing.

I was really pleased with the outcome with Jasmine.

Her owner was just not in a position

to provide her with the care and attention

and time that Jasmine actually required.

We were able to help with that,

re-homing her to a suitable family that can.

And that, for me, is a great result.

I would much prefer it to end like that

than it to carry on and the dog ends up in a suffering state, where

action has to be taken against the person. It's the last thing I want.

It's early evening in London.

And while most people rush home, Inspector Natasha Wallis

is on her way to another bird trapped in the city.

Pigeons are not everyone's favourite animal.

But luckily for this one, Natasha is a fan.

I really like pigeons. People don't really like pigeons

because they think they're pests and all that,

but I like pigeons, I think they're quite nice.

So we'll see if we can rescue this one.

Unfortunately, because of their size

and they sort of wobble about a bit,

you know, they end up in quite a bit of mischief.

Whether that's a cat attack, a fox attack

or whether it's caught on a balcony because it can't get out.

So, yeah, they end up in quite a bit of mischief. Hm!

Even though it's the end of her shift,

pigeon-lover Natasha makes her way there.

Sort of looked up and this poor pigeon was hanging by its feet,

sort of flapping around in the net.

He also sort of hung upside down, as well,

which isn't sort of a natural sort of behaviour.

If he was a bat, I mean, fair enough, but you know, a pigeon...

Then sort of when I approached, he's fairly stressed,

so he was just sort of trying to flap away even more.

They can do a lot of damage,

especially pigeons, if they're flapping their wings around,

they can sort of make breaks and sort of damage their feathers, as well.

Which is very, very important because they need them to fly.

I sort of had some scissors on me and just tried to sort of

gently sort of cut around its foot.

Carefully holding the pigeon,

Natasha makes a few snips and it's free.

It's a little feral pigeon.

Luckily, it hadn't done any sort of real damage.

The foot was swollen and cold,

but it hadn't cut through, you know, through the skin.

What I'll do is I'll hold onto it for a little while just in a box

just to chill it out for a while.

And just see if some feeling comes back.

It's starting to have some sort of motion in its feet,

so just make sure that he can perch.

They need to be able to perch.

There doesn't seem to be any serious damage,

so he could be well on his way in a while.

I've got some seed for him, as well,

so I'll give him some of that just to fill up his belly.

It's a swift job, and thankfully,

the pigeon hasn't suffered any ill effects

from hanging around in the car park.

After a short drive, the pigeon's ready to release.

Oh, see, he's getting feeling back here, see?

Yeah, that's perfect.

He's gripping me quite nicely on my little pinkie.

And he's not wasting any time.

Just holding him up and him flying off, like,

"Yeah, I've had enough here." It was lovely.

So he's flown quite nicely, so he'll go back and meet his mates.

Probably get some dinner.

He's happy, I'm happy. It's lovely.

The caller's happy, so it's all good.

Yeah, he'll go get his dinner.

I gave him some birdseed, anyway, so he'll be well on his way.

Probably get seconds.

There we go.

I'm proud. I'm quite happy for it.

I don't know if other people are,

because it's like another pest on the street, but...

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd