But it was only in 2016 when Mullins set out to search for that missing skunk that the group’s potential became clear to him. When he arrived in Barrow upon Soar he met the distraught owner – a keen exotics keeper – and realised that many of these incongruous creatures he’d been fascinated by were people’s pets that had escaped or been freed. “I realised that it was time to stop treating these animals as statistics,” he says. “To roll my sleeves up and get stuck in… To try to help find them.”Mullins resolved that Beastwatch needed to refocus its purpose: the seed for the country’s first dedicated search and rescue operation for exotic animals was sown.This is a copycat version of the kind made by Greenies.
And no, they are not all safely at home with their owners. If anyone knows this, it’s Mullins. In 2006, Beastwatch conducted its first survey of exotic animal sightings. It counted 5,391 big cats, 51 wallabies, 43 snakes, 10 crocodiles, seven wolves and three pandas, among others, between 2000 and 2006. The big cat sightings are unverified – so perhaps speak to imaginations running wild, not just pets – but it has been estimated that about 500 big cats are loose in the UK. And yes, a red panda was found in the Birmingham suburbs in 2005 after escaping a nature park. “It is clear the UK contains far more exotic wild animals than the British public could ever imagine,” he told reporters at the time. Many historic escapees have already made themselves at home in the UK. Ring-necked parakeets, or the “grey-squirrel of the sky”, were kept as pets in the Victorian times. A colony first established itself in Kent in the late 1960s and there could now be up to 30,000 breeding pairs. Red-eared terrapins became hip in the 1980s amid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-mania and can now be found nationwide. A small population of wallabies has lived in Staffordshire since the Second World War, when five of the marsupials escaped a zoo at Roaches Hall. A number of Himalayan porcupines established themselves in Devon during the 1970s after escaping a wildlife park. In 2009, a colony of skunks was found in the Forest of Dean.A Safe Place. Creating a safe place for your pet is crucial to its comfort. Make sure your pet has its own place of comfort where it can rest, relax and feel secure.
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When wild animals escape: could the exotic pet trade be our downfall? – videoThe RSPCA does not have the resources to go looking for missing pets – however exotic – though will attend to them when found. The organisation has fielded an increasing number of calls regarding exotic animals over the past decade, many of which have been abandoned. In September it published a report with Born Free calling for tighter restrictions. Animals on the non-native invasive species list cannot be kept as a pet (unless you owned one before the species was listed), and dangerous animals require a licence from the council. Otherwise you can keep almost any animal as a pet in the UK. The Kept Animals Welfare Bill, which is currently moving through parliament, is set to ban the keeping of primates as pets and require anyone in possession of one to apply for a licence. Until then, even monkeys are fair game. While animal welfare charities, environmental groups, exotic keepers and the government grapple with the best way to manage the UK’s rapidly diversifying population of animals, the frequency with which they are popping up in unlikely circumstances is rising. Whether it’s a raccoon dog dumped by its owner, a much-loved python gone awry, or a suspected big cat on the Derbyshire hills, the fact is, the animals are out there. Who’s going to get them back?Watch Out For Your Dogs Feet in the Summer. Hot pavement can burn your dogs paws rather quickly. To see if it’s too hot for your dog place the back of your hand on the pavement – if you can’t hold it there for 5 seconds it’s too hot for your dog. On really hot days consider walking your dog in the woods, on the grass, or waiting til the sun goes down.
This softens the kibble and makes the food much easier to chew.
Mullins built a database of volunteers, but at first Beastwatch operated in a fairly loose fashion. Like Mullins, many Beastwatch members were interested in cryptozoology – animals whose existence is disputed, or that have roots in myth, legend or folklore. For many in the group these out-of-place animals were a similar phenomena. Cryptozoology was recreational, fun, nothing much depended on their success or failure in finding something.
But one member who was eager to change this was Mike Potts, 54, the committee secretary. Potts shared an interest in cryptozoology, but what really intrigued him were the mysteries that surround real animals. The Beastwatch project tapped into his desire to make sense of the subversive side of nature and the legends that out-of-place animals can generate. “If they’re not escaped or released pets, they’re either unusual migratory visitors, or stowaways,” says Potts. Mullins and Potts hit it off. “He was full of enthusiasm,” says Mullins. “This was what we needed”. Potts knew that work needed to be done for Beastwatch to be credible. There are skills required to investigate a mystery beast or handle an exotic pet. They don’t always match. Potts became more selective with recruitment. “There’s no point having hundreds of volunteers if they won’t move from behind the keyboard.” Beastwatch began making its transition into a serious, albeit fringe, wildlife rescue group.In 2019, Potts took over as CEO. That summer it boasted another success when it recaptured two raccoon dogs reported by the BBC to have been “terrorising” residents around Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, “as if they were monsters,” says Potts. The Beastwatch team showed up to coordinate a search operation that boasted drones, thermal imaging technology and cameras as well as a team scouting the surrounding countryside. After a 96-hour search the raccoon dogs were recaptured. Climate change is increasing the threat of invasive species, but most escaped exotics are unlikely to survive long in the wilds of Britain, let alone become established. That’s the key reason Beastwatch believes it’s urgent to swiftly retrieve them. It’s a welfare issue. And a service for keepers that have been given the slip. Potts does not dispute the need for regulation, and that it should not be so easy to buy these creatures.On a cold, grey November day, I pay Potts a visit. He lives just outside Preston, in a semi-detached house. He shares it with his partner and fellow reptile aficionado Kate Ashley, 36, two of her children, and more than 30 animals. In the driveway is a car with a green sticker on the windscreen: “Emergency Animal Responder on Call”. There’s a stuffed leopard toy on the dashboard and a pile of cages on the back seat. Potts, who has a grey beard and thick black eyebrows, answers the door. We take a seat in the front room surrounded by reptile tanks. There’s a gecko, a salamander, leeches. Another is filled with cockroaches. He reaches into the tank and pulls out two of the insects. “These would make appropriate pets for children,” he says fondly as they crawl around his hands. They almost seem cuddly. He unlatches a door in the base of a black cabinet and a brown and white skunk named Bisto scuttles out and hides behind the sofa. “Cup of tea?” asks Potts. “Yes, please,” I reply.Many of the animals in his home are rescues that he has rehoused. Through the kitchen is a conservatory where a Savannah cat patrols more tanks containing a python and a boa. Beyond that is a concrete yard where Potts keeps two raccoon dogs.Potts wants Beastwatch to be taken seriously by the authorities. Sure, many of the early members were there for the big-cat chatter, but since then it has evolved into a network of experienced exotic keepers. Today it has 500 volunteers in local teams that cover every county in England, with four teams in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland. The group has 3,300 members and a steady stream of requests for help. Recent posts include a (now found) royal python in Rainham and a missing African grey parrot in Banks. They encounter about 100 cases a month, but Potts reckons it’s pushing 1,500 cases a year now. As well as proactively searching for missing animals, Beastwatch is connected to people with the facilities to home them. There’s a gap within the existing animal rescue infrastructure, Potts believes, and they can plug it. The doorbell rings. It’s Tracie Williams, executive director of operations for Beastwatch. Williams is a former RSPCA inspector who joined Beastwatch about four years ago. She is helping Potts build collaborative relationships with other wildlife groups and tout their unique skill set to the emergency services. “They effectively treat every single animal that isn’t a cat or dog as venomous,” says Williams. “So they’re looking for somebody to tell them: ‘Is this snake going to kill me?’”If your dog’s acting funny, get out the umbrella! According to a Petside.com/Associated Press poll, 72% of dog owners believe their dog can detect when stormy weather is on the way.
Another reason to have a good relationship with the police is that Beastwatch activity has a tendency to look suspicious. In October, Potts and Williams hot-footed it to Blackpool to join the hunt for a 4ft iguana. “It’s night-time and we’re going around back alleys with high-powered torches and peering over people’s fences,” says Williams, who phoned the local force to let them know. “An hour later they’re calling us back asking: ‘Have you found it? Is it OK? Will it live!?’” It was vindicating: “They showed real interest,” she says. As for the iguana? Conveniently, it was bright orange. The lizard was soon spotted in the low branches of a tree and caught with the help of a snake hook. Potts shared a celebratory post on the Beastwatch Facebook page. “You can keep your hedgehogs and pigeons folks – this is what we live for!” He whooped.
Use a Food Dispensing Toy for Fast Eaters. If your dog eats too fast use a food dispensing toy (we love the Kong Wobbler & Bob a Lot), or place a few tennis balls in their bowl to slow their eating. Not only does this keep them from eating too quick, it gives them a nice mental workout.
While Potts chargesonwards – he wants Beastwatch to be a household name – Mullins is happy to take a step back from the day-to-day operation. He never imagined Beastwatch would take the course it did, though his love for the chase still pulses through it. “I was gobsmacked at how quickly it evolved,” he says. “When people started joining it was wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Today, Mullins still keeps tabs on notable sightings and goes on excursions from time to time. “I’ve been given some leads, which would be interesting to chase up,” he says. “I need to put it out there in the local press again – see if I can get some more information.” He’s fixing up a motorhome so he can tour the country. Spread the Beastwatch gospel. In the meantime the creatures on his doorstep keep him occupied. There are badgers that come up to his house every night. He feeds them, talks to them. “They can be very entertaining animals,” he says. “Squirrels, too. I do love them. They’re an invasive species – so we’re not supposed to – but they’re cute little buggers.” Whether it should be here or not, Mullins is satisfied with whatever is out there. He doesn’t go in for pets. “I have four chickens,” he says.