An RSPCA rescue involving two birds that got stuck inside a large pipe in Nottingham has been hailed as one of the 'top rescues in the Midlands' by staff in 2022. Workers were alerted to their plight after hearing them making noise inside the piping system in Nottingham.
The incident has become part of the RSPCAs "top rescues in the Midlands for last year." In 2022, the charity’s officers were called to thousands of incidents, including many in which birds, wildlife, pets and farm animals have found themselves in a difficult situation.
Inspector Keith Ellis went to the Pigeons' rescue on August 22 and found where the birds had got in, followed the pipe and located them around 12ft inside. They’d gone through three turns before getting stuck.
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He removed a section of pipe, reached inside and pulled two pigeons free He said: “The pipe was metal and the birds had moved down it - but it was impossible for them to get back up as they couldn’t climb up or fly out.
"Thankfully it was quite easy to reach them and once I gave them a quick check over - I released them back to the wild.”
The RSPCA has revealed other animal rescues of 2022 across the UK - including a boa constrictor at McDonald’s and a seal which swam 300 miles to a pub.
The charity has compiled 59 of the oddest rescues of 2022, with the weirdest being a starving seal pup that slithered into a Bristol pub. Stunned staff at the Old Lock & Weir spotted the underweight animal in their courtyard behind a stack of beer barrels.
Its tag said the seal had travelled from Scotland to the English boozer - arriving on January 2.
The inn is 300 miles from the Scottish border where it was last monitored.
Wildlife supervisor Paul Oaten said: “The River Avon runs from the coast all the way along through Keynsham where the pub is situated at the water’s edge, so it’s likely he found his way there swimming upstream from the coast.”
Throughout the year, the RSPCA has received nearly 300,000 reports of trapped animals - one of the charity's busiest ever years.
A not-so-cunning fox found himself in a spot of bother after he slipped over garden furniture and got his leg stuck between the slats in Ealing, West London, on January 3.
On January 4, a seal pup needed saving after getting stranded on top of a cliff 50ft above a beach in Weybourne, Norfolk.
RSPCA rescuer Amy Pellegrini said: “He must have just taken a wrong turn and then followed the coastal path before ending up on the cliff edge.”
Meanwhile in the city, commuters were shocked to find a tarantula on a train arriving into London Bridge train station on January 7.
Another stunned Londoner also had a fright when a sugar glider flew into his bedroom and woke him up.
John Zou, 27, was asleep when he heard something scampering around his bedroom in his sixth-floor flat in Holborn at 5am on January 10.
In North Wales, rescuers abseiled 100ft down a cliff to rescue a sheep which was trapped on a narrow ledge.
The animal had tumbled down the cliff in Great Orme after being chased by a dog on January 21.
B&Q staff raised the alarm after they found a fox curled up asleep on a doormat in the Peckham store in London on January 22.
Rescuer Chloe Wilson attended to help: “He looked very cute all curled up on a doormat down one of the shopping aisles.”
In Bishop Auckland, County Durham, rescuers dismantled a dry stone wall to save a cat which was trapped after it tried to crawl through a tiny gap.
The animal charity was called out in London on February 2 after a fox managed to get a tin of dog food stuck on its head in the appropriately-named suburb of Barking.
A stricken vixen also needed help in Colchester, Essex, when it got its head trapped inside a watering can on February 11.
RSPCA rescuer Natalie Read managed to remove the can before releasing the shocked animal back into the wild.
She said: “The caller said the poor fox had the plastic watering can stuck on her head and was thrashing around trying to get it off. She was clearly distressed.”
A bodging badger needed a helping hand after getting stuck in a narrow gap between a wall and a fence at a house in Reepham, Norfolk.
Rescuers from the RSPCA and London Fire Service came to the aid of a fox who got its head and leg stuck through the metal base of a chair in a Streatham garden in south London on March 3.
RSPCA Inspector Lynn Serrano said: “We’re not sure how it happened but the wicker chair was upside down and the fox had his head and leg stuck through the metal pieces at the base of the chair and the top of the chair legs.”
A ewe was feeling a little sheepish after getting tangled in a rose bush in a field in Grantham, Lincs.
A muntjac deer was left hanging helplessly upside down after getting tangled in
chicken wire in woodland in Addlestone, Surrey.
A hedgehog got stuck in a vertical groundpipe and needed to be rescued by the RSPCA and fire crews on Isle of Sheppey Holiday Village in Leysdown-on-Sea, Kent, on April 9.
Homeowners in Birmingham had a surprise when they went to investigate a noise and found a cat giving birth to a litter of kittens in the guttering above their conservatory on April 12.
A fox cub needed rescuing after getting his head wedged in a car wheel after sneaking into a shed in Orpington, London.
A hungry badger got stuck in a skip in Cawood, North Yorks., while searching for food on April 22.
An eight-strong team of rescuers saved a stranded sheep which was trapped on a cliff ledge 50ft above the ground in Kingsbridge, Devon.
RSPCA chief inspector Richard Abbott said: “She was hopelessly stranded.
“Our very patient rescue team accessed the ewe by abseiling down the cliff; and over
several hours were able to guide her to higher points, before she was caught and guided to a nearby field.”
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