Folly Wildlife Rescue

Our main aim is to promote an interest in, and respect for our natural wildlife heritage, which is under growing threat and in some cases (the hedgehog for example) at great risk of extinction.

Each year some 3500 injured, orphaned, sick or distressed wild animals and birds are admitted to our centre where they receive expert care and veterinary treatment. Some (but very few) have fallen from nests in high winds, or are the survivors of attack or predation by other wild animals, but by far, the vast majority are the victims of human activity.

A large part of our work at Folly involves caring for young animals and birds that have been orphaned or separated from their parents, usually as a result of human interference. We hand-rear everything from baby badgers, to day-old sparrows and even tiny goldcrests and at the height of the breeding season are caring for hundreds at a time.

The vast majority of these youngsters are successfully returned to the wild.

Our education programmes, conducted primarily through leaflets and talks to school children and community groups, aims to raise awareness of the plight of our wildlife and hopefully help reduce the number of accidents and incidents occurring.

Additionally, many animals and birds are needlessly and wrongly persecuted and we work to dispel the many myths and misconceptions that can sometimes lead to them being harmed. For example, magpies are killing all our songbirds, foxes ‘kill for fun’ etc.