We have been in contact with Jan for ages, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome her aboard, not only as a guest blogger, but as a Co. Durham representative for the CFZ. With Davy Curtis already at the helm in the country, the two of them will make a dream team par excellence... There was something in the barn... something that had a taste for warm blood, fresh flesh, and the thrill of the kill. Something that was frightening even the rats.
It began with the suspected murder of a rabbit. He was found badly injured – multiple bite wounds the only clue to what had happened. When I picked him up, terrified beyond comprehension, something scurried out of sight under the hay bales. By the time we got back from the vets with the corpse of our pet, it was too dark to investigate further, but we moved the other rabbits and guinea pigs from the barn.
By the next morning, a duck had been killed and part-eaten.... followed over the next week by other small and feathered friends, including both the budgies which were in an in-barn aviary. No clues to the culprit were found at the scene of the crimes, but it was clear that something had to be done.
The obvious first stage was to move all the 200 bales of hay out from the hay-loft, and then re-stacking them under cover. This took most of the day and resulted in nothing more than a few pulled muscles and the total absence of a predator.
Whatever-it-was, however, seemed to have been disturbed. For the next few weeks, nothing bad happened... except that the rats moved back in. The rats were ok though – at least we knew where we were with the rats. Rats steal eggs, attack newborn chicks, nest in the hay bales.... they are predictable. The Thing that had attacked my animals was not a rat...and it seemed to have gone. Of course, I am going to tell you it came back.
It did.
I was so convinced that IT had gone, that I put the rabbits and guinea pigs back. I wish to any available deity that I hadn’t, but hey... hindsight is wonderful.
The bunnies and piggies had lived safely back in their home for some weeks. All seemed good.... then one morning I found the slaughtered guinea pigs, three of them with their necks broken by a single bite, and a half chomped bunny.
Feeling sick to my very soul, I buried my friends, and moved the scared and vulnerable witnesses indoors – they have never gone back, and I have better defences now. But I saw the beast that I think was responsible, running away from the barn and into the neighbouring fields, in the general direction of the river. It was ferret-like, but larger than your average ferret. It ran like a ferret too, and it MAY have been a very big male feral ferret. But it was very dark, maybe black, and I am pretty sure it was a mink. I am also sure that if it WAS a mink, it didn’t live too long after it left my barn.
They love rivers, and the river Wear, snaking its way through the valley, is perfect Mink country. They take over the tunnel systems of riverside bunnies, water voles, kingfishers... in fact any riverside hole will do them. In areas where they take over a river system, there is no hope for the resident wildlife. But the river Wear - especially here in the upper reaches of the river – is teeming with wild things.
Water voles plop into the white-water rapids... dippers do their thing from their sh*t-stained river-rocks... bunnies continue to burrow on the banks of the water..... the whole ecosystem of the upper river is vibrant with life. If anything more sinister than a weasel lived here, this lot simply wouldn’t do.
It’s been 3 years now since The Thing caused such devastation here. The barn is now home to several feral-ish cats and a small flock of sheep. All the small-n-furries, and all birds are now living elsewhere in safe, secure, purpose-built accommodation. It might have gone for good, but I can’t take the chance again.
Jan Edwards, Head of Animal Care
Farplace Animal Rescue - the no-kill animal sanctuary
Farplace, Sidehead, Westgate, County Durham, DL13 1LE
http://www.farplace.org.uk/
It began with the suspected murder of a rabbit. He was found badly injured – multiple bite wounds the only clue to what had happened. When I picked him up, terrified beyond comprehension, something scurried out of sight under the hay bales. By the time we got back from the vets with the corpse of our pet, it was too dark to investigate further, but we moved the other rabbits and guinea pigs from the barn.
By the next morning, a duck had been killed and part-eaten.... followed over the next week by other small and feathered friends, including both the budgies which were in an in-barn aviary. No clues to the culprit were found at the scene of the crimes, but it was clear that something had to be done.
The obvious first stage was to move all the 200 bales of hay out from the hay-loft, and then re-stacking them under cover. This took most of the day and resulted in nothing more than a few pulled muscles and the total absence of a predator.
Whatever-it-was, however, seemed to have been disturbed. For the next few weeks, nothing bad happened... except that the rats moved back in. The rats were ok though – at least we knew where we were with the rats. Rats steal eggs, attack newborn chicks, nest in the hay bales.... they are predictable. The Thing that had attacked my animals was not a rat...and it seemed to have gone. Of course, I am going to tell you it came back.
It did.
I was so convinced that IT had gone, that I put the rabbits and guinea pigs back. I wish to any available deity that I hadn’t, but hey... hindsight is wonderful.
The bunnies and piggies had lived safely back in their home for some weeks. All seemed good.... then one morning I found the slaughtered guinea pigs, three of them with their necks broken by a single bite, and a half chomped bunny.
Feeling sick to my very soul, I buried my friends, and moved the scared and vulnerable witnesses indoors – they have never gone back, and I have better defences now. But I saw the beast that I think was responsible, running away from the barn and into the neighbouring fields, in the general direction of the river. It was ferret-like, but larger than your average ferret. It ran like a ferret too, and it MAY have been a very big male feral ferret. But it was very dark, maybe black, and I am pretty sure it was a mink. I am also sure that if it WAS a mink, it didn’t live too long after it left my barn.
They love rivers, and the river Wear, snaking its way through the valley, is perfect Mink country. They take over the tunnel systems of riverside bunnies, water voles, kingfishers... in fact any riverside hole will do them. In areas where they take over a river system, there is no hope for the resident wildlife. But the river Wear - especially here in the upper reaches of the river – is teeming with wild things.
Water voles plop into the white-water rapids... dippers do their thing from their sh*t-stained river-rocks... bunnies continue to burrow on the banks of the water..... the whole ecosystem of the upper river is vibrant with life. If anything more sinister than a weasel lived here, this lot simply wouldn’t do.
It’s been 3 years now since The Thing caused such devastation here. The barn is now home to several feral-ish cats and a small flock of sheep. All the small-n-furries, and all birds are now living elsewhere in safe, secure, purpose-built accommodation. It might have gone for good, but I can’t take the chance again.
Jan Edwards, Head of Animal Care
Farplace Animal Rescue - the no-kill animal sanctuary
Farplace, Sidehead, Westgate, County Durham, DL13 1LE
http://www.farplace.org.uk/
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