NEWS IN BRIEF

FOSTERERS NEEDED IN WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND

Our fostering scheme rolled out across the west of Scotland in August and has now expanded to Caithness and Sutherland. We are looking for even more loving foster families to care for animals from our Glasgow, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire and Caithness centres.

Fostering can be beneficial for animals for many reasons, whether that’s taking an animal who finds the kennel setting too stressful into a home environment, allowing an animal a quiet place to recover from medical treatment or helping rehabilitate an animal with behavioural issues. You could be helping a dog like Scarlet the Rottweiler X German shepherd. Scarlet was a very outgoing girl but would get over stimulated and mouthed a lot, which could be quite painful. We did find her a fosterer but sadly she was brought back as they struggled to deal with her mouthing.

Scarlet was quite depressed when she came back so she then went on foster with a member of our team who was already caring for her sister, Buddy.

Being with Buddy and her foster family’s other dogs helped Scarlet immensely. She became much less mouthy as she had the other dogs to play with. She loved cuddling up with Buddy too. Her foster carer was also able to toilet train her.

Scarlet was then lucky enough to find a forever home with her other sister, Jade. There’s no doubt that being on foster helped Scarlet to learn the skills she needed to fit in with her new forever family.

We have roles fostering either dogs or cats and we’ll work with fosterers to find animals suited to their homes and level of experience. To apply to foster an animal go to:

https://www.scottishspca.org/ fostering

BIRD FLU UPDATE

There is currently a severe outbreak of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, in Scotland.

Wild bird populations have been devastated in parts of the country. Whilst avian influenza has circulated among bird populations on a regular basis for two decades, the current outbreak is the worst Scotland has experienced in terms of transmission and mortality rates. It has spread rapidly and killed tens of thousands of birds. any more wild birds to our National Wildlife Rescue Centre until the situation improves. This is to prevent a possible outbreak at the wildlife centre as we have wild birds on site waiting to be released as well as hundreds of other wild animals.

There is currently a severe outbreak of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, in Scotland.

We have stringent biosecurity measures in place already, but the scale and speed of the spread of this year’s outbreak of avian flu means we do not have appropriate facilities to isolate the large number of birds we could expect to admit. If we were to have a single positive case at the centre, all birds on site could be at risk of being euthanised in line with UK-wide protocols to prevent the spread.

We are monitoring the spread of avian influenza and will release birds in our care when they are ready to return to the wild. Identifying release sites where it is least prevalent is a challenge but it would be detrimental to the welfare of wild birds to keep them in the centre when they are ready to return to the wild.

COLLEAGUE FUNDRAISING EFFORTS

Team members Chloe Fleming and Rebecca Cain from our Dunbartonshire Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre completed the ultimate challenge – a 15,000ft skydive to raise money for the Society.

Chloe and Rebecca, who are both animal care assistants at the centre took part in the skydive on 5 August raising £1,965. Chloe said, “We’ve recently taken over the fundraising for our centre and we wanted to start with something big and memorable.

“We’re both adventurous although Rebecca is scared of heights and can’t even stand on a ladder without trembling.

“The money raised will be going directly to improving facilities for animals in our care at the centre.” In addition, animal rescue officer Sheena MacTaggart, animal rescue officer Danielle Higgans, inspector Isla Bell, animal care assistant Alasdair Ratter and animal rescue officer Ryan Cannon braved the infamous Tough Mudder challenge on 2 July to raise £730. Sheena said, “The Tough Mudder course was challenging but we all had an amazing day.

“The worst obstacle for me was one you had to slide down the inside of a pipe into a metal container filled with ice cold muddy water - too deep to even stand - then hold your breath and swim under the water beneath a row of old tyres. I did feel a bit scared during that one!

“Despite all the mud, obstacles and electric shocks, it was all worth it to know we were raising money for such a worthwhile cause. “We’re hoping to come back next year and make it an even bigger team effort!”

If you have a fundraising challenge in mind that you’d like support with, get in touch with us at

fundraising@scottishspca.org

CORPORATE SPOTLIGHT

Throughout 2022 we have been in partnership with BEAR Scotland as their Charity of Choice after securing the most votes in an employee poll. They have been supporting us through a number of employee activities such as their companywide step challenge in May and taking part in the Edinburgh Kiltwalk.

At the end of September Bear Scotland held an Open Doors Day event where they held a raffle and collected donations in our aid. Alongside this they have been collecting items such as toys, food, and blankets at their offices in Queensferry and Inverness which have been dropped off to our centres across Scotland and headquarters in Dunfermline. If companies would like to find out more about partnering with us and supporting Scotland’s animals in 2023 they can request our partnership information booklet or set up a meeting with corporate partnerships officer, Holly, by contacting fundraising@scottishspca.org