Saturday 24 April 2010

tiggywinkles

The principles of Tiggywinkles at Haddenham are very simple.

If an injured or sick wild animal is brought to them, they will do their utmost best to bring it back to full health without giving it the idea that it belongs with humans, so that it can go back to the wild.

If it's not well enough to survive in the wild but can enjoy a good quality of life, it stays at Tiggywinkles in a natural environment with whatever care it needs.

If it's beyond hope of a decent future, they will euthanase. Remarkably, this is something they hardly ever have to do.

It's expensive to run, and depends on donations. The staff and volunteers are constantly working with animals who don't understand that they're being helped, and will scratch, bite, kick, and, of course, prickle. If you've ever looked after an animal, you know that there is a lot of cleaning of poo, bedding, and other things that you'd rather approach with rubber gloves and a nose peg. At Tiggywinkles they do all that because as far as they are concerned, the life of a hedgehog/deer/fox/badger/otter/blackbird/ is worth it.

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