Episode 9 Animal SOS

Good afternoon, RSPCA control centre.

What animal is your call regarding today?

In the UK, someone calls the RSPCA every 30 seconds.

Exactly what did you see?

So they're left outside in all weathers

and they've got no bedding or shelter from the rain.

24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

I don't want you to go too close to it because swans can be very,

very dangerous.

When an animal needs help, the emergency line is open.

Do you know something, I've had non-stop calls for the past hour.

All right, take care, bye-bye.

Got a bit of a rough throat now.

It's because I don't shut up.

Filming as the calls come in.

And when inspectors respond on the ground.

I'll pass this information through to the officer.

So close.

Rescuing everything from injured wildlife

to neglected pets.

Every shift is a challenge.

Rhea one, RSPCA nil.

There's no such thing as a typical day as an RSPCA inspector.

Get...oh, my Lord!

We never know what we're going to deal with.

No two days are the same.

-You're keeping a dog out there, it's disgusting.

-Whoa there!

It can get to the point where you feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall.

It's dirty, sweaty.

It stuns me sometimes, the smells that I come across.

Sorry.

There's not a lot of glamour in my role.

But even if you've just helped one animal...

Hi, mate.

..it's worth it.

Today, a call to a Labrador with a serious skin condition.

A bearded dragon from down under living in a Bolton back yard.

Are you going to let me pick you up, fella?

And David Yates is forced to let this sleeping dog lie.

You are the laziest dog.

RSPCA inspectors love animals.

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

Fleas.

Sadly, they deal with them on an almost daily basis.

Inspector Chris Shaw suspects he knows what the problem is.

An infestation of unwelcome visitors.

Hiya there, have you got a black Labrador at all?

Someone's given us a ring

and said he's got quite a bit of hair loss on his back?

Ah, right. Is she all right, is she, then?

-Am I all right just to come in and have a look, is that OK?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

I mean, when I was in there, this poor dog, I mean,

she had such a bad skin condition, she was really quite smelly.

It's not just the smell of six-year-old Lana that

worries Chris.

All right, baby.

I instantly saw that she was clearly in a lot of discomfort.

She just never stopped scratching.

She does seem to be chewing herself quite a bit there.

Obviously bothering her, isn't it? And you're saying it's a...

Seasonal allergy. She's had it since we've had her.

You could see the skin was so thick, and so crusty,

it's got to have taken quite some time for it to get like that.

So my next question to her is, have you taken it to a vet's?

How long would you say, though, is it since you've been?

I mean, are we talking a year? Are we talking months?

-It was earlier on this year.

-Earlier on.

-Yeah.

Because I'm sure you know that when a dog's got something like this,

they have to be seen regularly by the vets.

We've only been here, what, five minutes,

and she's scratching, rubbing, you know.

-She always rubs anyway, that's the way she is.

-Right.

-In herself, even when her allergies aren't bothering her.

-Right, right.

Chris thinks that Lana needs immediate veterinary attention.

To me, that's quite bad, I mean, how do you feel then,

would you mind if I took her up to a vet's,

let the vets have a look at her, and then just see what the vets

think about it? You know, because I can't really leave...

And can you promise me she'll be coming back?

Yeah, I mean, the only way she wouldn't be coming back is

if the vet saw her and thought that she was in such

a state that she needed to stay at the vet's.

Then obviously she can't come back, but it's...

I need a vet to see her, and if you're saying you can't

really do it until next week, to be honest that's a bit long,

you know, so she needs to be seen, I'd say today.

OK, I'll leave you be. All right, thanks a lot.

The owner agrees to let Chris take Lana to the vet's.

Come on, little girl.

And once outside, the severity of her skin condition is clear.

When I was out in the daylight, I was even more concerned really.

You can clearly see, the dog's got quite a bad skin allergy.

Wouldn't stop scratching the whole time I was there,

so it's not one of those that I can just leave.

I'm going to go and get the vet to look at it,

see what the vets think, the vet's the expert.

Vet Christine Jameson examines Lana.

Hello, you.

And immediately sees she's carrying around a little more than

a seasonal allergy.

Well, you do appear to have an awful lot of fleas.

Really? That's probably why my hair's itching a bit then.

That's why we're all thinking of scratching.

In fact, Lana is overrun with them.

There's one, just there. Having a little run around.

And loads on her back here.

She was riddled, they were just crawling all over her.

It was quite upsetting to see quite how many fleas this poor dog

was carrying.

Obviously, this has been going on for quite some time,

because she's actually damaged her skin

so badly that the hair's not even re-growing.

-Look at what she's done to the table, though, already.

-I know, it's all part

and parcel of the skin trying to get rid of what's irritating it.

And Lana has other problems.

Those claws, I mean, especially these ones, it looks like she's not...

Doesn't really look as though she gets an awful lot of exercise,

no, they're very long and very pointy as well, at the end there.

These are crossing over, they're actually underneath.

That's dreadful.

While they're examining her,

Chris and Christine also notice poor Lana feels feverish.

She's red-hot as well, isn't she?

I know, she's burning. Might actually take her body temperature as well.

Oh, what these vets have to do to get your temperature.

43.2.

Wow.

Not a well dog.

The skin was so inflamed that the dog was running a high temperature.

I mean, that just goes to show how bad it was really.

You know, that poor dog, it was awful.

Although she seems really happy, you know,

she must be in quite a lot of distress, really.

Chris is concerned about Lana's lack of medical treatment,

so decides to call the vet where the dog is registered.

All right, cheers, bye.

When that information came back,

the truth was that that poor dog had not been seen for 14 months.

That is shocking, you know,

it's been left for 14 months with that skin,

every single moment of its life, causing it distress, that's awful.

Good girl.

Treatment for Lana gets under way.

And the vet decides there are grounds for Chris to seize

her from her owner.

-There you go.

-Good girl, oh, who's a clever girl?

So he calls the police.

I was wondering if there's any chance

I could get an officer to come and seize a dog here for us?

I didn't want that dog to go back to that house,

not in the state that it's in.

So at least the dog's going to get looked after.

The owner's not going to be happy but,

they should've looked after the dog.

It breaks my heart every single day, you know,

at work when I get to see these kind of things.

I just don't understand, you know, it really, really makes me so angry.

Animals are completely dependent on us and they just don't deserve to

be left like that, to be left to go and suffer.

Go on, fetch!

Eight weeks later, after a long course of treatment...

What's this? Fetch!

..Lana is transformed.

That is one happy dog.

Lana! What's this? Good girl, good girl!

Whatever the outcome of Chris' investigation,

he's satisfied that Lana now has a brighter future.

Sit. Paw. Paw. Good girl.

To see Lana now, and the transformation,

and how happy she is, you know, it's incredible really,

and she's now got a full, thick, nice, beautiful coat,

she's not itching, she's not scratching, she's not chewing

herself, it's really nice for me to be able to be part of this,

and to know that I've helped make this dog's life a lot better.

Good girl, good girl.

Most calls to the RSPCA concern cats and dogs.

But once in a while,

every inspector faces something a little more unusual.

Gosh, I've had all sorts. Monkeys, meerkats.

I've had a lobster in the middle of a street,

which actually turned out to be a crayfish.

I had a gentleman keeping a raccoon as a dog on a fire

escape in the city.

Leopard geckos, tortoises.

I had a snake coiled around the wheel of an aeroplane.

Iguanas, goats, sheep.

Yeah, it's interesting, that's for sure, never a dull day.

Today, inspector Vicki McDonald is en route to something exotic,

even by her standards.

We've had a call about a stray bearded dragon.

It's apparently just been found in the garden of an abandoned

property by a member of public, so, I think they were a bit surprised.

And they're not the only ones. It's a first for Vicki too.

We do get animals that are found abandoned in boxes or

left behind or whatever.

It is slightly more unusual to get a collection of a bearded dragon

in a garden. Yeah.

I think your natural assumption with an animal like that is,

has it escaped from somewhere?

It's very unusual to have a bearded dragon.

A magpie maybe or a pigeon, yeah, but not a bearded dragon.

But before Vicki can work out where it's come from,

she needs to find it.

Hello! Hello, gorgeous. So is it one of these here, is it?

Her first stop is the surprised neighbour who called it in.

-Been like that since June.

-Right.

-Just abandoned.

They've just moved out.

So I went over and said

I need to ring the RSPCA, that just should not be in there.

That's not normal.

And, lo and behold, when they get to the garden, there it is.

Hidden under a plastic basket.

Are you all right, fella?

My knowledge of exotics is limited.

I'm by no means an expert on exotics.

Still under the basket.

Bearded dragons are native lizards of Australia.

So how did he end up in a garden near Bolton?

You're quite big, aren't you?

They've abandoned it, I think.

It looks like beardy may have been an unwanted pet, dumped with

a whole load of other household items after his owners moved away.

This is different. Who knows?

I mean, she's saying that we're talking about back in June,

that they moved out.

That's definitely the sort of viv that would have held

a bearded dragon.

We've had a very warm summer.

So, I mean, that could have been running loose for several months.

The neighbour had looked over and couldn't believe what she was seeing.

She'd seen what she thought was a dragon in the back garden.

I don't know, it's an unusual one.

Vicki's priority is to catch him and check he's fit and well.

Three months on the loose may have left beardy reluctant to be handled.

Hello. What're you doing?

So Vicki approaches with care.

Looking at him, he does look dehydrated,

and perhaps a bit underweight.

Oh! Don't make me jump.

He's really quite wrinkly.

Round there and round there, which to me suggests that he might

be a bit dehydrated. Are you going to let me pick you up, fella?

There we go. Oh, you're cold.

He's underweight.

It was quite obvious that it was very cold, it was extremely cold.

And then when you actually handled it,

it appeared to be really quite thin,

so that would suggest that it's been out there for a bit of time.

All right, fella, you just sit on there a minute.

It seems Vicki's rescue has come just in time.

We have had some really nice, hot weather, and now the temperatures

were dropping, and obviously it wouldn't have survived much longer.

He seems friendly enough, though. He's quite lethargic.

He's just skin, he's just skin.

So, yeah, he definitely needs some grub in him.

But, after calling the local rescue centre,

Vicki is told they can't take beardy in tonight.

So time for plan B.

Sometimes in this job you have to take your work home with you,

so Mr Beardy came home with me for the evening,

before going off to the rescue centre the next day.

Britain's countryside is full of wild animals.

Hunting them for sport is now illegal.

But recently there's been a rise in the number of gangs using

dogs to kill for thrills.

Gang activity, where these people go out and target wildlife,

with their dogs, is a massive problem

at the moment.

Go on, lass.

This footage, seized by the RSPCA, shows dogs being set on a hare.

She's right on it. There.

The criminals also target deer, foxes and badgers.

It's very much rural antisocial behaviour.

These people thoroughly enjoy what they do, they've got no

regard for their animals.

Go on, lass.

The ultimate goal is for them to go out

and kill whatever wildlife they come across.

Dog's knocked that fence over, can you see her?

She'll kill this. Get in!

What a run.

Morning, everybody.

Today, Humberside police and the RSPCA are mounting

an operation to crack down on a gang suspected of illegal hunting.

B2 grade of information's been received from the RSPCA which

has corroborated this information.

And on at least four occasions they travelled at night with two

or more others, and with dogs, to hunt wild mammals.

The raid is the result of weeks of work by the RSPCA

Special Operations Unit, which was set up to deal with animal crime.

It's targeting people who set out to commit deliberate acts of cruelty,

whether that's for financial gain or for their own enjoyment

because they enjoy watching animals suffer.

Today's targets are suspected of hunting badgers with dogs.

In a highly co-ordinated operation,

the team will hit several addresses at once.

At the first house,

it's a tense moment for chief inspector Ian Briggs.

Not only the RSPCA putting up a large amount of staff,

we're asking the police to as well, so when you're leading one of these

operations, there is a large amount of pressure on you to get it right.

Police officers arrest the man at the house.

Now, the search for evidence of illegal hunting can begin.

Got at least two dogs.

There was one lurcher that was a long-haired,

wire-haired-type lurcher, and a Jack Russell terrier.

Jack Russells would predominantly be used for ratting

and things like that.

Obviously the lurcher could be used for taking anything above ground.

Just having those type of dogs isn't enough.

You need more evidence on top of that...

..to indicate what they're doing with these dogs.

So, the team move on to the four by four parked on the drive.

Things like that.

The dogs follow the beam of light, and pursue the animal

then catch it above ground.

So you can use that for badgers, fox, deer, rabbit, anything.

As well as the lamp, Ian finds a smoke gun,

often used to flush animals from the ground.

And a device used to mimic wildlife calls.

Then, they make a grim discovery.

What's that?

What's that from?

That... I reckon that might be a badger tail, you know.

That sort of thing is not uncommon amongst these people.

We've even had ears, on one case.

These are sometimes collected, for no reason other than

they like to have a trophy of something their dogs have killed.

All the items are bagged up as evidence.

The next priority is getting the dogs to the vet's.

Pitted against other animals,

they're often the unwitting victims of this crime.

Vet Paul Knott is already in the middle of examining

a number of dogs that were seized from the other addresses.

That lip's mildly detached from the mandible.

It looks a bit sore, that.

I mean, that would be consistent with fighting,

or attacking something that's fought back at him.

All the dogs, including the two seized by Ian Briggs,

had a range of battle-related injuries.

We've got a scar here. Puncture wounds.

There's absolutely no regard for the injuries that that animal

will suffer.

Definitely got a few scars on the nose there.

These people take pleasure in that,

because, for them,

it's used as a way of promoting how tough their dog is.

The case is still ongoing, but all the dogs have been treated,

and for now are being kept in RSPCA care.

Most owners love their pets,

and do everything they can to keep them safe.

But accidents do happen.

At Manchester animal hospital,

staff try everything they can to save injured animals.

But sometimes their conditions are just too severe.

Amanda Moss has brought in her cat Smudge who's

fallen from a fifth-floor balcony.

Don't know how it happened, he's just jumped.

I don't know what to say, I'm just so upset.

Come on through.

Amanda hopes hospital director David Yates can help.

-So did you see what actually happened? Yeah?

-No.

-No. And when you found her, what were...

-She was under a car.

After falling five storeys,

David's worried Smudge may have done irreversible damage.

When a cat falls from a great height, it may suffer

damage to the lungs, or to the chest itself, which can interfere with

breathing and circulation, and they can be life-threatening injuries.

David needs to X-ray Smudge,

but he also wants to prepare Amanda for bad news.

We'll take her in, she's going to be with us a while,

we don't know how it's going to end up, this, though.

She talks to you. She's my best friend. She is.

It's hard for Amanda to leave her precious pet.

All right.

Once Smudge is anaesthetised...

All right, all right.

..David checks for any obvious fractures.

The left front leg is broken.

The pelvis is fractured as well.

But only X-rays will show the full extent of her injuries.

So what we can see is the heart, and the lung structures.

All of this looks relatively OK.

But her front leg is badly broken.

As we suspected, we've got quite extensive injury here,

which is going to cause pain and discomfort.

We can see the humerus is snapped roughly halfway across.

Sadly, the damage to her pelvis is also severe.

We can see that these major bones of the pelvis have come

away from where they should be, we see a chip here.

The bones were all over the place.

The chances of getting a fix

and for Smudge to live a pain-free, normal life were slight.

David has to deliver the sad outcome to Smudge's owner.

Hi, are you all right?

I'm afraid the bad news is the pelvis is really smashed up.

Yeah, I'm sorry for your bad news, but, you know, we can't leave

Smudge to experience discomfort over what will be a long time.

All right.

Amanda gives her consent for Smudge to be put to sleep.

It's a sad end, but I think, when the owner had taken on board

all of the different problems that Smudge had, I think she made the

right choice to end Smudge's life and to prevent further suffering.

Thankfully,

few pets come into the hospital with injuries as severe as Smudge.

And staff are used to treating animals who aren't to

blame for their predicament.

Polly Burns, please.

This six-year-old bichon frise called Polly has got a nasty

gash after owner Colin's scissors slipped whilst he was grooming her.

Oh, dear.

We see a number of owners who are trying to groom knots out

of their pets, or they use scissors or clippers, and if you're not

trained in that kind of thing, you can inadvertently damage your pet.

Polly's not the only one suffering.

So you're clipping and it's just snagged it with the scissors?

No problem, don't worry about it. It happens a lot.

Colin's feeling pretty guilty.

I was absolutely gutted.

I just feel it's my fault, what's happened to her.

So, I'll never go near her with a pair of scissors again,

put it that way.

Knots on the coat can lie very close to the skin,

and you need to be quite skilled to make sure you don't, you know,

that you remove the knot and don't remove some skin in the process.

The owner was worried, one because his dog was in discomfort,

but two, he felt responsible for that.

Before he stitches the wound, David gives Polly an anaesthetic.

So just pull her in tight towards you.

And if you could just talk to her at the front end, that'll distract her.

DOG CRIES

All right, all right, well done. Well done.

The injection sometimes stings when we give it into the back leg,

so we'd compounded his guilt.

He's got this wound that he'd made,

we then have to anaesthetise his animal,

which involves an injection, which involves some further

discomfort, so, yeah, the day wasn't going well for this fella.

This time, Polly's getting a proper haircut.

We're going to try and stitch that.

The wound to me was a simple wound to fix,

I wasn't overly concerned about, you know, the clinical problem.

There was no damage in the deeper layers,

it's not bleeding that much, the owner's come fairly quickly,

so we can easily close the wound.

One more stitch and that should do us, I think. OK.

All Polly needs now is three more jabs.

Antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and one to bring her back round.

You can see she's not fully out of it.

She's just deeply sedated.

Polly is out for the count.

Polly!

Despite all of our coaxing.

You know, she was just making the most of it.

Come on, wake up.

And was just making him feel extra guilty for what he'd done.

Polly, come on.

No chance. It's payback, this.

Come on.

You're thinking about it, aren't you?

You are the laziest dog, aren't you?

We ended up taking her outside to try and see

if a bit of fresh air would coax her to return to her owner.

Come on!

Is it your dog?

She was fine from the exposure.

I doubt she'll be as keen to return to her owner

when he gets the comb and brush out.

She's awake! That's great.

Absolutely fantastic.

Polly's wound should heal quickly,

but it may take Colin longer to recover.

I don't think he's going to be grooming his pet in the near future.

I hope he's going to go to a poodle parlour and seek professional help.

It's not something you can just dabble in.

Rather like my DIY, it costs me more in the long run.