RSPCA thanks for donations of margarine, fish and food

Press release: Tuesday, 5 February 2013

An RSPCA wildlife centre is working hard to help get hundreds of rescued birds contaminated with a mystery paraffin oil back to wild, while more calls are coming in about oiled birds turning up in Sussex.

More than 300 birds – mainly guillemots but some razorbills - were taken to the West Hatch centre in Taunton, Somerset last week after being contaminated with the strange substance described as ‘sticky Vaseline’.

The number of birds being found by RSPCA inspectors along the south coast, mainly around Dorset, has now dropped – but there is still a lot of work to do to ensure their care.

Tomorrow RSPCA inspectors in Sussex will be launching a boat from Littlehampton to check for more oiled birds after reports came in about an oiled swan on the River Adur and oiled guillemots.*

The first birds were found last Tuesday (January 29) but numbers increased dramatically on Thursday (January 31) and continued through the weekend. Inspectors are still rescuing one or two in the past couple of days but are reporting numbers of the birds arriving suffering from the contamination has dropped.

Manager of the wildlife centre Peter Venn said: “It is great news that the numbers of the birds found covered in this strange stuff has dropped, but there is still a lot of work to do here in caring for the birds and making sure they survive and are fit to be released out to the wild.

“It is not just that they all need to have this gluey gunk washed off them – although this has been quite tricky and needed quite a lot of work.

“A lot of the birds are in quite a weak state and are struggling to eat and drink. We need to make sure they are rehydrated and fed, and then are prepared to get back to the wild again where they belong.”

The vast majority of the birds were found on beaches in Dorset - mainly Chesil Beach, near Portland and Weymouth. There were some found further along the coast in Folkestone, one in Cornwall and a couple in the Isle of Wight. There have also been reports of birds found in Ostend covered in the same sticky goo.

Sadly many of those found, or spotted out at sea, were dead, but inspectors did their best to save as many as they could and take them to West Hatch.

The Environment Agency took a sample of the substance and sent it for testing. The results showed it was a mineral-based oil.

Staff at West Hatch initially tried to clean the substance off the birds with washing up liquid but this did not get the substance off. Subsequent attempts to use Stork margarine were a lot more successful. But as the number of the birds arriving at the centre for help grew, the supplies of the live-saving spread dwindled.

Manager of the RSPCA centre Peter Venn said: “We are incredibly grateful for donations of margarine, fish for the birds and even some food for the staff which have come in from lots of local people.

“The local Tesco and Waitrose both helped us with supplies, and lots of local groups sent us in some things as well.

“This incident was completely unexpected and came out of the blue. We were not expecting such sudden vast numbers of birds to come through our doors in need of help and we were literally running out of the margarine to clean them and fish to feed them.

“It is still early days and hard to say how the birds will survive in the long-term but the margarine is proving to be a real life-saver.”

ends

Notes to editors

*Reporters are welcome to join the RSPCA tomorrow in West Sussex on the boat looking for oiled birds - please call the press office to arrange.
The RSPCA can only carry out rescues like this with your help. Please text HELP to 78866 to give £3 (Text costs £3 + one standard network rate message).