Mama Mia, an 8-month-old cat, was found malnourished and suffering from fleas and worms with adorable kittens. Mia is now receiving treatment and the kittens are being hand-reared. These little bundles of joy are already four weeks old and on the hunt for their forever families. But wait, there’s a twist! Mia, their brave and devoted mama, couldn’t produce enough milk to keep up with the demands of her five hungry babies. So, our team of dedicated rescuers stepped in, putting their hand-rearing skills to the test. When she first arrived at the sanctuary, Mia was in a shocking state and feeling ..read more

Bank holiday monday and it’s non stop action. Are we open? was the callers first question on the phone. Of course we never really stop apart from a few hours everyday to deal with admissions and maybe get a quick slurp of coffee. A juvenile buzzard on the way. A baby hedgehog found wandering in the road. Bank holidays, christmas, easter, it’s all just another day at Derbyshires busiest wildlife rescue centre. We do our very best to provide assistance any day of the year. We’ve had all sorts in lately. From domestic pets, a cormorant, hedgehogs, pigeons, baby rabbits, a lizard found in a suitca ..read more

Swift season is upon us and young swifts have started to arrive for care at the Sanctuary. We’ve already had a few from folks who brought us young swifts last year, so it’s great to see watchful eyes are about to help these wonderful birds. It’s important that any Swifts found needing help are brought to a centre for specialist care as soon as possible. It is a race against time to get them ready and flying fit for their migration. Swifts eat live insects and hand feeding is a time consuming process. Jo our Swift coordinator is a dab hand at feeding and keeping weights just right after years o ..read more

Not bird bills although we do see a lot of them needing help. Those dreaded bills that we need to pay to keep the sanctuary going. Winter has been a really tough time in our corner of the world and we desperately need emergency funding to help pay for vets fees, utility bills, rates and all other costs of running Derbyshires busiest animal and wildlife sanctuary. With no funding from local authorities or national support, we rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters and members of the public to keep the doors open every week. Every day we receive numerous calls from wildlife lovers, ve ..read more

We are one of very few specialist Swift rehabilitation centres in the UK and we need your help.? We are absolutely desperate for live waxworm and live calci worm. You can purchase supplies from our Amazon Wishlist at Amazon Pet Samaritans Or contributions via donations are greatly appreciated so we can purchase them direct. https://www.petsamaritans.co.uk/donate/ There are currently over 30 swifts in our care with more arriving each day and are getting through more than 2000 insects a day! YES 2000! Each Swift will eat up to 60 insects and then we have the Swallows and House Martins to feed a ..read more

Our vet bills for treating admissions rocketed during May and June this year with emergency admissions of cats and kittens needing urgent treatment. We need to raise £1200 to cover these unexpected costs. You can make a donation by clicking here if you would like to help the animals. Elsie came to us in a shocking state and required emergency medical treatment. It was touch and go that she would survive but thanks to treatment at Staveley Vets, she is coming on in leaps and bounds. She enjoyed a little bit of sunshine today. She gets tired very quickly at the moment and feels the cold. She’s ..read more

The Charity Group at Dronfield Junior School raised £105 towards our ‘catio’ at their Easter sale after weeks of preparing bunnies, chicks and lots of other items to sell during their break times. As a school they have supported the sanctuary since 1996, so we are ever so grateful for all their support over the years. Our new facility is well under way and will provide a much needed safe outdoor space for nursing mums and kittens to explore ..read more

Our resident ducks and birds are still in lockdown due to a national bird flu crisis and are getting a bit fed up. We’re desperate to be able to let them out for a wander. However, the virus doesn’t seem to be letting up. We heard the devastating news of another sanctuary being forced by law to have all their birds culled recently after the virus was found in some of their resident poultry. The thought of having to euthanise JJ the Senegal, the Cayuga ducks, Steven seagull and all the other wonderful characters at the Pet Samaritans doesn’t bare thinking about. Our wildlife hospital is still ..read more

We’ve been helping feral cats and kittens over the summer months. More than we have ever seen. Over 30 stray kittens were brought into the sanctuary all in need of help. We have nursed them back to health and we have managed to find homes for most of them. However the cost of treatments has depleted our resources. Our wildlife centre has been busier than ever and we have had lots of rabbits in this year. It’s quite unsusual to have so many at one time but with Covid seeing many centres closing, requests for help have quadrupled this year. Bunnies on the way for treatment at the vets Unfortuna ..read more

We hate to bug you (cough) but we are urgently in need of some live critters to feed our baby birds and swifts. It’s the time of the year for orphan nestlings and we have daily admissions needing our help. Swifts are unusual as they feed almost exclusively on the aerial plankton of flying insects and airborne spiders. They mainly feed at 50-100 metres in the air. A baby Swift is an especially difficult species to rear successfully as it is a pure insectivore. The adults feed the chicks several times every day with compressed food balls made up of different kind of insects, all caught in flight ..read more