A snake caught in glue, a fox trapped in a chair and a puffin blown 110 miles inland: RSPCA’s wackiest animal rescues of 2025 are revealed
The RSPCA has revealed the wackiest animal rescues of 2025 – including a fox trapped in a chair and a puffin blown 110 miles inland.
Dramatic pictures show hapless pets and wild animals trapped in bizarre places before being freed by baffled rescuers.
The charity has compiled a list of the oddest rescues of 2025, with one of the weirdest being a kitten trapped in a sewage works.
Stunned staff at the site in Handsworth, Birmingham, alerted the charity after hearing the tiny animal’s ‘booming meows’.
RSPCA Inspector Boris Lasserres and Cara Gibbon both donned dry suits to rescue the kitten, nicknamed ‘Olivia Twist’ in October.
Cara said: ‘She was trapped down a sewage flow system and we think she must have fallen from quite a height above as there was no other way she could have got herself in there.
‘We know she had been in there for at least three days and with no mum around she must have been terrified.’
The kitten was taken to an animal hospital where she made a full recovery and has since been rehomed.
Daisy the dog with RSPCA Inspector Kim Walters (left) and Andy Cook (right) from RSPCA Brent Knoll
A juvenile corn snake that escaped from one of the flats above the premises was returned to its owner
A ‘terrified’ kitten was rescued from a Birmingham sewer thanks to help from the RSPCA and her cries for help
A young swan was spotted by a dog walker on the frozen Leeds and Liverpool Canal near Riley Green, Lancashire
A not-so-cunning fox found himself in a spot of bother after he slipped over garden furniture and got his paw stuck between the slats in Mottingham, South East London, in January.
Another young fox cub needed rescuing after getting stuck inside the engine of an Amazon delivery van in Derby.
The distressed female fox was only spotted by the shocked driver after she gnawed through a cable, triggering a dashboard warning light to illuminate.
In November an overweight raccoon was rescued after being spotted in Hayley Fairburn’s garden in the Cornish village of Gwennap.
Hayley, 36, said: ‘My dog started going crazy and I thought he was seeing a cat.
‘I was very shocked to find a raccoon in my garden. I thought I was losing my marbles.’
Meanwhile in London, a business owner was shocked to find a snake slithering around his fish and chip shop in Greenwich in July.
Initially it was feared it was a python but it turned out to be a harmless corn snake which had escaped from a nearby house.
Peanut was described as the “thinnest dog” the RSPCA had seen when she was found abandoned in Biggleswade, in Bedfordshire, on New Year’s Day
RSCPA officers have also saved a 12-year-old horse from a muddy field in Edenbridge, Kent, after he got his legs stuck in his straps in January
A fox got three out of four paws stuck in the wooden slats of a garden chair in South East London
This unlucky tawny owl took a very wrong turn – straight into a slurry pit. No injuries were found
Rescuers saved another grass snake after it was found in an illegal glue trap in Liskeard, Cornwall.
In April a peregrine falcon became tangled and trapped in anti-bird netting in a block of flats in Druids Heath, Birmingham.
A seagull was also lucky to escape without injury after getting caught up in a football net in Ramsgate, Kent, in February.
It wasn’t only birds getting themselves in a flap negotiating nets, in Sheffield a badger found itself tied up in knots after stumbling into a football goal.
In July the charity helped save a lost puffin which was blown 110 miles inland.
The bird, nicknamed ‘Oona’ after the cartoon character in the kids’ TV show Puffin Rock, was found in a garden in Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire.
The exhausted bird was nursed back to health before being returned to the Pembrokeshire coast where she had come from.
In January a chilly swan needed rescuing after becoming trapped by ice in the frozen Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Lancashire.
A release of rescued seals. The seals, found underweight and in poor health, received care at the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre in Taunton before being released at Combe Martin Beach
A gull left dangling from a tree after getting tangled by its wing in a discarded fishing line in Swinton was rescued by the RSPCA
A gull in netting. The RSPCA receives around 2,000 reports every year about wild birds trapped in or behind netting
The black kitten, aged about five months, was first heard on 9 May at the rear of William Hill bookmakers in Market Place in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and the rescue effort lasted almost a week
A seagull needed rescuing after it was spotted dangling from a tree after getting tangled in a discarded fishing line in Manchester.
A kitten had a lucky escape after climbing down a pipe and getting stuck in a blocked-up cellar of William Hill bookmakers.
The black kitten, aged about five months, was trapped for around a week in May before being saved from the bookies in Wisbech, Cambs.
There were more animals needing help after wandering where they shouldn’t have been.
A hedgehog found herself needing urgent care after being injured by a strimmer in Cheddar, Somerset.
Despite having many of her spines cut off in the mishap, she made a full recovery before being released into the wild.
Also in Somerset, an owl was saved after crash-landing into a slurry pit before being cared for at an animal rescue centre in Taunton.
Animal rescuers saved a lurcher called Peanut, described as the ‘thinnest dog’ an officer had ever seen.
A badger was rescued after he got stuck in a football goal net on a school field
A young fox has been rescued after getting trapped inside the engine of an Amazon delivery van in Derby
Rescued Puffin names Oona by vets was nearly half the weight she should be when she was discovered in June in Stoke Lacey near Hereford
A hedgehog was found with missing spines and covered in ticks, likely from a strimmer accident
Officers also reunited a family with their beloved dog eight years after it was stolen by backyard breeders.
Rita and Philip Potter were devastated when five-year-old Labrador Daisy was snatched from their garden in Norfolk in 2017.
The RSPCA tracked Daisy down to a house in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, where she was found in an emaciated state in February.
Rita, 80, said: ‘We kept a photograph on the mantlepiece and would look at it every day thinking of her and where she might be.
‘So it is an absolute dream come true that the RSPCA found her and have returned her to us – where she belongs – we are so, so grateful.’
RSCPA officers have also saved a 12-year-old horse from a muddy field in Edenbridge, Kent, after he got his legs stuck in his straps in January.
Days later a tawny owl needed rescuing after getting tangled on a branch by its wing.
The bird was found hanging 20ft above fast-flowing water in Bedwas, Caerphilly, Wales.
An owl had become tangled on a branch by its wing and was found hanging around 20 feet high above fast flowing water in Bedwas, Caerphilly
Rescuers saved another grass snake after it was found in an illegal glue trap in Liskeard, Cornwall
This peregrine falcon had a lucky escape after becoming trapped in netting on a high-rise building in Birmingham
Three grey seals named Shakira, Iggy Pop and Elmer were released back to the wild in Devon in December.
The seals are just the first of many seals that will be returned to the sea.
Throughout the year, the RSPCA has received 634,000 reports about trapped or abused animals – one of the charity’s busiest ever years.
RSPCA superintendent Simon Osborne said: ‘Every single day throughout the year, our teams rescue, rehabilitate and rehome hundreds of animals with very special backgrounds and stories of triumph over adversity.’
