A 71-year-old man has rescued more than 92,000 over the span of 20 years – doting on the creatures to the point of sharing a bed, watching television together and even sharing Christmas Dinner with them.
Geoff Grewcock – nicknamed the ‘Saint of Animals’ – has rehabilitated everything from foxes, deer, badgers, owls and hedgehogs to more exotic beasts including tarantulas, lizards, snakes and parrots.
He looks after the animals in his garden – which he has turned into a makeshift sanctuary called Nuneaton Wildlife Sanctuary – which costs £32,000 a year to run thanks to vet bills, medicine and food, and is funded largely by donations from the public and fundraising efforts.
After nursing the creatures back to health, Geoff releases an estimated 70 per cent of the animals back into the wild.
The sanctuary is currently home to 13 foxes, 14 owls, 17 hedgehogs, a badger, as well as several tarantulas, lizards and snakes.
Members of the menagerie have made themselves fully at home in the Warwickshire property, even venturing inside to cuddle up to Geoff on the sofa and in bed.
One particular character is four-year-old badger, Minty, who was orphaned after her siblings and parents were killed.
Minty was found lying on top of her dead mother trying to suckle, and was brought to the sanctuary.
Geoff hand-reared the cub, and believes the badger now thinks of him and his daughter, Emma, who works alongside him at the sanctuary, as her parents.
They even let the sweet creature indulge in her favourite snacks – pork pies and sausage rolls.
“She is always cuddling up to me, and comes up for kisses, lying on me or sitting in the living room,” Geoff told Jam Press.
“For Christmas I’ll be giving her a proper Christmas dinner.”
Geoff previously worked as a security guard until 1998 when he was attacked by robbers, getting gassed during a raid on his van.
It took three years for him to recover from the attack and he decided to stop his job and use his compensation to rescue animals, starting the sanctuary in 2001.
Now, the team includes 12 volunteers, who help Geoff go to rescue sites alongside a vet who sedates the animals when necessary.
The animals that the sanctuary rescues most are deer, foxes and badgers. They find that deer get trapped in railings a lot and the fire brigade, who have a Wildlife Rescue Unit, get called to release them.
Geoff is then on hand to provide them with a loving environment to recuperate in.
He said: “We currently have three deer who are very tame and walk around the house, even coming in to the bathroom when I am on the toilet!”
Meanwhile one of the foxes, two-year-old Woody, who is blind, sleeps in Geoff’s bed with him.
Geoff rescued Woody when he was seven days old and had been bred for fox hunting on a farm.
He said: “There are farms all over country where the illegal breeding of foxes for hunts goes on.
“The fox cubs are kept in tiny cages for weeks so can’t walk or move and therefore flung into an arena for dogs to get a scent of.
“We are aware of the locations of these farms but currently we can’t prove their activities.”
Woody, like many fox cubs bred for hunting, was underweight, lethargic and had been kept in a tiny cage for all his life – so he couldn’t even move or eat when he was rescued.
Geoff said: “He had 150 ticks all over his body that we had to pull off him and they could have caused his blindness.
“Now the poor little thing is full of gratitude to us. He sleeps in my bed, is house-trained, has his meals with the dogs and even watches telly with me.”
Geoff is on call 24/7 and has only had two holidays in 25 years because of his devotion to the rescues.
Members of the public are always bringing in injured or abandoned animals – with the sanctuary getting calls throughout the day and night.
Geoff hopes to enjoy some down time over Christmas, when Emma and her husband will be coming around, but he will be on call as usual – and will be spending the festive day with his rescues.
He said: “I’ll be giving Woody a full Christmas dinner and he’ll be cuddling up to me to watch the telly after.”
And Geoff is going to give the rest of the animals a special Christmas treat too.
He added: “We have 17 hedgehogs who are underweight so we can’t release them back into the wild which means we need to feed well over Christmas.
“We’ll be giving the deer plenty of plums and grapes as they love fruit. We take all the stones out of the plums every day so they can enjoy the plums.
“And owls eat meat and we give them baby chicks which we get frozen, so they’ll get a chick pie for Christmas Day as a treat.”
Geoff has also rescued barn owls who were cruelly hand-reared in a small cage and lots of tawny owl who were all injured.
He has released many of these animals back into the wild after healing them and caring for them.
He said: “There was only one rescue who got me in trouble and that was a parrot that constantly used foul language which he had learned from his previous owner.
“Whenever I was on the telephone the parrot would mimic my voice and tell them to f*** off and call them w****s. People soon stopped talking to me as they thought it was me!”
Geoff relies on public donations to help these animals, and the pandemic has caused a set back with fundraising efforts.
He said: “If we don’t get enough money, I have to pay for it from my own savings.
“I would love for people to be aware of how much we do for animals and how much we rescue them from a life of cruelty and suffering and appeal for them to help us raise funds to continue to help them.”
Despite turning 70 last year, Geoff says he will never retire and that he wants to always help animals.
He said: “We are the voice of animals. They don’t have a voice to tell us they are hurt and suffering.
“We are always getting wildlife who have suffered and been mistreated and with the public’s help, we can help them heal and be the loving and affectionate beings they really are.”
In Other News, have you checked out the pair of blind cats find purr-fect home in time for christmas with family who now have eight felines
