RSPCA's 'busiest day' of the year sees six calls a minute

The RSPCA says it had its busiest day of the year on Tuesday - handling 4,060 calls to its cruelty line.

The charity's South Yorkshire-based national control centre handled an average of six calls a minute, with 1,775 calls investigated by rescuers.

Staff dealt with situations including a cat thrown from a car, a deer stuck in a football net and a squirrel with a toilet roll tube stuck on its head.

The charity released an hour-by-hour account of incidents it had to handle.

Early calls coming in as the lines open include a woman's pet cat in London bringing in an injured fledgling bird and a collapsed fox on the roadside in Sussex which has been struck by a car.

The call handler gives advice to take the young bird to a vet to assess its injuries, with the fox so badly hurt it was decided the kindest option would be to put it to sleep.

"It is always so sad when we have incidents like this but at least the fox was cared for in the end and was not left to suffer a lingering death," says animal rescue officer Chloe Wilson, who arrived at the scene in Rustington within an hour of the call.

In the suburb of Meanwood in Leeds, West Yorkshire, a call is made to report a squirrel struggling to breathe after getting its head stuck inside a toilet roll tube.

An officer arrives at the scene to find the squirrel 9m (30ft) up a tree, with the animal coaxed down using fire brigade rescue equipment and freed from the litter.

"We would always urge the public to take extra care to dispose of their rubbish responsibly so animals aren't hurt," says animal rescue officer Dave Holgate.

In the West Midlands, five rabbits are left at an RSPCA branch in Coventry by a member of the public who says they found them in a box on a road.

The rabbits are taken for a health check before foster carers are found, with follow-up visits organised for the property in the capital after no-one was found at the address.

Meanwhile, inspectors are called to reports of an ongoing dog beating at an address in east London.

In the East Midlands, a pigeon is found hanging upside down from a roof in Leicester with its foot stuck between roof slates.

An inspector calls in the fire service to reach the stricken bird, but the pigeon manages to free itself just as they prepare to climb up.

Officers are faced with a "common sight" in Berkshire - an animal caught in a football goal netting.

The RSPCA are able to free the muntjac deer from the net in a garden in Padworth Common, near Reading, with the deer fortunately uninjured.

A driver spots a sparrow hawk trapped in the grille of a car in Lincolnshire, with fears it may have been stuck for several hours.

The bird is freed and sent to a vet for a check-up before being released back into the wild.

In Cheshire, a six-week-old kitten believed to have been thrown from a moving vehicle is being cared for by RSPCA staff.

The kitten, called Winston, was spotted by a delivery driver crawling around on the roadside near Crewe, with staff pinning its broken leg.

A gosling trapped in a fishing line at a South Yorkshire lake requires urgent attention, with a crew called to Highfields in Doncaster. It was so badly injured the bird had to be put to sleep.

Another gosling is caught in angling litter at nearby Manvers Lake.

This time the young bird is able to be freed and found to be in good health.

Also in the county, a distressing report comes in about a dead dog found in a suitcase in Gleadless, Sheffield.

Evidence suggests the pet may have been drowned and the body is taken to a vet to help establish the cause of death.

Two swans and three ducks are found covered in oil at a lake in Northamptonshire, with the contaminant thought to be petrol or diesel dumped in the water.

The swans are caught and taken to a local wildlife hospital for washing, but the ducks evade efforts to catch them.

In Penylan in Cardiff, a magpie has fallen down a chimney and become stuck in a vent.

The bird is eventually released by cutting plasterboard away and is released back into the wild after a welfare check.

"While the teams see unimaginable cruelty on the frontline every single day, it's not all doom and gloom and thanks to the calls to the cruelty line on this day so many animals were saved," the charity says.

"Our call handlers know they can make a difference because, working together with frontline rescuers, they can help save lives and coordinate rescues of all types of animals."

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