Watch as we meet the charity's team saving thousands of animals each year and here's how you can help

Pawz for Thought are appealing for support to help ensure they can expand their animal rescue service, including plans to build a £2m animal hospital.

The charity has seen a surge in both running costs and animal intake and rely entirely on public donations to keep their lifeline service for the city and region’s wildlife going.

Trustee, director and volunteer Lorraine Thornton said: “Last year we supported around 8,000 animals and we are already 30% up on our intake for the same time last year (2025). Costs are also going up, particularly with the cost of veterinary fees.

“In 2024 our operational costs were around £180,000 and last year it was over £200,000. Aside from the money we make at our charity shop, we rely entirely on volunteers and public donations.

“The public are great in supporting us. Whenever we put out a request for items we need, such as food, blankets or towels, our 40,000 followers respond immediately.

“If it wasn’t for our service then many of the animals would be euthanised or left to die.”

Site manager Chris Horn has been with the charity for 14 years.

He said: “We currently have around 1,000 animals we are looking after. When we get a call from the public about an animal is distress or injured one of our SOS team will head out to collect it.

“We cover from Teesside up to Northumberland. Once they arrive at the centre they go into our triage area where we assess injuries or what illness an animal may have and take them to the vet if it’s something we can’t treat ourselves.

“This time of year is our busiest as it’s nesting season.”

In May (2026) Pawz for Thought was granted planning permission to build a £2m wildlife hospital on the charity’s South Hylton site.

Chris said: “If we are able to build the hospital with scanning and Xray facilities it would make such a big difference as we would be able to accurately understand and identify what is wrong with animals more quickly.”

Meet the patients

Paws for Thought currently has a wide array of patients including a swan and geese who’ve been injured after “crash landing”, an injured barn owl and kestrel, and a hawk chick which fell out of its nest, and a heron who lost his parents.

Chris said: “We get a lot of chicks and young birds at this time of year who’ve either fallen out of their nests or lost their parents. It’s a particular problem when we have windy weather.

“We also have to deal with a lot injuries from fishing hooks and we are seeing an increasing number of birds such as swans which have been shot with pellets.”

Another particularly busy department is the hedgehog unit which is currently caring for 115 patients.

One juvenile hedgehog named Lions is currently being treated for Fluke, a parasite which has got into his intestine, whilst another hedgehog by the name of Stephenson was brought by a gardener who had accidently caught him with a strimmer.

Hedgehog team leader Kay Clarke has volunteered with the charity for five years after initially bringing in an injured hedgehog she had found.

She said: “The most common cases we deal with are injuries from dogs, strimmers, lawn mowers, and other garden tools, as well as a lot of hedgehogs which have been involved in collisions with vehicles. Any cases we can’t treat, we take to a vet in Langley Park.

“We do have a lot of baby hedgehogs with us at the moment who’ve either been injured, or abandoned by parents. Strimmer injuries can be particularly nasty as where the flesh has been exposed, such as Stephenson, you can get flies which have laid eggs in the wound. These can hatch and turn to maggots and so we have to get rid of all the eggs.”

The department is also currently looking after two baby weasels who have been hand fed and will soon be returned to the wild.

Once the animals have been given a diagnosis they are housed in a range of pens where they can receive treatment and recuperate from their illness or injuries.

Chris said: “Our aim is to get all the wild animals back into the wild and help rehome any stray or discarded domestic animals. Some of the wild animals such as the birds can become attached to you, but you find eventually DNA kicks in and they head back into the wild.”

If you can support with any donations, you can do so via the charity’s website, which is where you can also find information about becoming a volunteer or adopting an animal.

Chris said: “The service we provide has huge value as without it, there are no public bodies providing this care and support.”