Helderberg Wildlife Rescue & Anti Animal Cruelty

Greetings community, friends, suppawters and followers. This is a rescue from a few weeks ago that I initially did not want to post on our page, as it doesn't have a happy ending, but I feel that this needs to be voiced.

I received a call regarding a snake on a property and the caller identified the snake as a Cape Cobra. On arrival, I could see the snake was out in the open and not even trying to get away with all the commotion and movements around him, which seemed a bit odd to me.

As I approached him, I immediately saw why he wasn't trying to get away. He was in too much pain, and felt the need to stand his ground and defend himself from what hurt him.

As you'll see in the video, I did not want to catch him the normal way as he had sustained a bad injury on his lower spine, so I wanted to avoid catching him by the tail as I normally would. I tried to pin his head down, and hold him behind his head so that I could examine his injury to determine which vet I was going to race him to.

The first attempt of pinning him down didn't go as planned. He just bit the back of my hook stick, and then he let go. The second time, he bit the back of my hook stick again, only this time he would not let go. This allowed me to safely hold him behind his head, and take him to a flat surface to get him to let go of the hook stick so that I could put him in a tub to take to one of the vets we use, as he unfortunately would not need any special care.

The injury he sustained was too severe to be treated and sadly I made the call to have him euthanized. After I had placed him in a tub, the caller proudly told me that they watched as their dog attacked the snake. I asked them if they had tried to get their dog away from the snake, to which they replied "no, we just stood and watched".

I told them that there is a big shortage of antivenom in our country, and if their dog got bit, he would have died. They however, did not seem to fazed about the news.

This incident basically falls in line with some calls we get where a snake was found on a property, and the caller tried to kill the snake, but instead injured the snake and was now too scared to go near the snake as the snake was now badly injured, pi**ed off and even more defensive. Then we get the call for a snake on a property. When we arrive and ask about the injuries, we always get the same answer. "I don't know how the snake got injured like that, I just found the snake like that"

We have been in this line of work for years and can tell the difference between a fresh wound and an old wound. We also have knowledge of what wounds look like that was made by certain objects like a garden fork, shovel, pipe and the list goes on.

As upset I am about this and not just that, there was no call out fee paid to help cover the costs for the use of a vet but besides that, I am begging the community. Please, very big please, when you find a snake on your property, PLEASE DO NOT try to harm the snake, and when you fail, then only call a snake catcher or a rescue organization. Just call us immediately when the snake is seen, and from a safe distance, keep an eye on the snake to inform us of his/her movements so that we will be able to find the snake. Please also do not let your pets out to try and get the snake killed. Your pet stands a high risk at getting killed in the process.

As I've said before in my previous posts, snakes play a very important role in our ecosystem. They help control the number of rodents, like mice, rats and squirrels that could carry diseases. Also if these rodents invade your house, they can cause some serious damage as they will chew on just about anything, including electrical wires that could start a fire and be the cause of your house burning down (worst case scenario) It is also illegal to kill a snake in the Western Cape.
Our number is 074 560 0711. Please rather call us to come and safely remove the snake to be relocated to a suitable area.

Thank you for all your support and the following of our rescues. Without you, none of this would be possible.

If you would like to aid or support us in what we are doing, by helping to cover fuel costs, animal food supplies as well as first aid supplies, vet bills and aftercare, you can do so via EFT or PayPal. The details are as follows:

Helderberg Wildlife Rescue
Capitec Bank
Savings account
1672019255
Or PayPal account is under
[email protected]

Greetings community, friends, suppawters and followers. I'm starting to think that Cobras aren't that good at estimating sizes, as this is not the first time we respond to a call like this.

Securite control room contacted us regarding a snake on a property that the owner of the house wanted caught and relocated. But what we didn't know that the snake was actually stuck in chicken wire.

When I approached the snake, he hood up, opening his mouth and striking at me as he was terrified and couldn't escape, so I covered his head with a pillowcase before beginning with rescue task at hand. At first touch, he tensed up but then completely relaxed, almost as if he knew that I was there to help.

Well, after carefully cutting the mesh and getting him free, he had two wounds from the mesh that cut into him while he was trying to free himself, and the struggle just made it worse. So after containing the snake, I phoned our vet and asked if I can bring the snake in for x-rays as I was not sure if he had any severe spinal injury.

Thankfully nothing broken (x-rays will be in the comment section) but slight deep tissue injury. He was given pain medication and some antibiotics, and off home it was. At home we washed his wounds that will fully recover, applied some wound treatment ointment, and placed him in an enclosure as he needed more medication the next day. He'll have some scaring on his body, but apparently that makes the snake more bad-ass, so he'll have the ladies falling over each other.

As I've said before in my previous posts, snakes play a very important role in our ecosystem. They help to control the number of rodents like mice, rats and squirrels. As you know, if these rodents invade your house, they can cause serious damage as they will chew on just about anything. If they chew on electrical cables, it could start a fire and you stand the risk of your house burning down.

Please do not try to harm or kill a snake whenever you cross paths with one, but rather give us a call (074 560 0711) to come catch and relocate the snake. Keep at a safe distance from the snake, and please try to keep an eye on the snake's movements until we get there.

Thank you for all of your support and the following of our rescues. Without you none of this would be possible.

If you would like to aid or support us in what we are doing to help cover fuel, animal food supplies, vet bills and aftercare supplies, you can do so via EFT or PayPal. Banking details are as follows

Helderberg Wildlife Rescue
Capitec Bank
Savings account
1672019255
or
PayPal account is under [email protected]

Greetings community, friends, suppawters and followers. Here is a rescue/relocation that we don't often get called for, hence why I decided to take a video and just give a bit of information regarding these awesome spiders.

My aunt is terrified of spiders and earlier this afternoon, one decided to pay her a visit in her room. The spider in question: The Huntsman spider also known as a rain spider. Although their size can intimidate people, these spiders are actually pretty much harmless. Yes, they can deliver a painful bite that might cause a bit of swelling but other than that, they are very docile spiders with bites occurring only in self-defense.

This spider was an easy catch, but the release was the funny part. Trying to get her out the jar with one hand proved a bit tricky, but once she came out, she chose to run up my leg instead of running into the bush that was right in front of her. You'll see in the video that I tried to coax her towards the bush a few times, but she found my shoes and ankle more inviting.

Then she finally realized that my legs and shoes was not the ideal area to hang around, and ran towards the bush that I tried to guide her towards at the beginning. I'm hoping that with this video, people will see that spiders don't just bite or attack, even after being poked a few times. It's all about how gentle you are with the spider.

They are active hunting spiders and do not make a web to catch their meals like other spiders do. They can run pretty fast which helps when it comes to catching moths, butterflies, cockroaches, small lizards or geckos and other insects.

I will include a photo of the female's nest in the comment section just to show you what it looks like. The egg sacks varying in different sizes can contain well over 100 eggs with some egg sacks carrying about 400 eggs.

Anyway, that's our story for the day. Hope you found the post informative.

Thank you for all of your support and the following of our rescues. Without you none of this would be possible.

If you would like to aid or support us in what we are doing to help cover fuel, animal food supplies, vet bills and aftercare supplies, you can do so via EFT or PayPal. Banking details are as follows

Helderberg Wildlife Rescue
Capitec Bank
Savings account
1672019255
or
PayPal account is under [email protected]

Greetings community, friends, suppawters and followers. We received a call last night just after 21:00 requesting us to catch a Puffadder that was found in the bedroom. Once I had caught the snake, and contained the snake, he gave off a bit of a hiss as he was not happy with me handling him. Soon as he made that sound, the lady said she heard the exact same sound the previous night near her bedside table, but thought nothing of it. Now there is nothing special about this capture, but I felt it necessary.

Since the beginning of Summer, 99% of snake calls that came in were Puffadders. Most calls coming from Somerset West, but calls coming from Gordon's Bay, Sir Lowry's and Strand. This has been the most Puffadders I've caught and removed from homes and gardens in the past 6 years. Not entirely sure what the reasons for the high numbers of Puffies, but we would like to take this opportunity to just give everyone a heads-up.

Puffadders can camouflage themselves incredibly well between shrubs and bushes and they are not that likely to move away like other snakes. These snakes will rather rely on their ability to blend in with their environment and hope they are not found. Please take this word of caution to heart, especially if you or have someone working in your garden.

They are mostly nocturnal, and rarely hunt prey actively, instead these snakes prefer to ambush their prey as it passes by. Their diet includes mammals, birds, amphibians, and lizards.

​Although these snakes may seem like slow-moving and lazy snakes, they are highly defensive when they feel threatened and can make incredibly fast biting attacks, sometimes biting 2 or 3 times with one strike. They are one of the fastest striking snakes in the world, surpassed only by the Australian Death Adder. It can strike within 0.25 of a second both forward and to the side.

When disturbed the snake will coil into a defensive S-shaped posture enabling them to strike a distance of 2 thirds of their body length. They hiss loudly, almost sounding like the snake is inhaling air, and then blowing it out with a sound similar to a car tyre letting air out, hence its common name "Puff Adder". This is used as a warning signal, that is best not to ignore.

Puff Adder venom consists out of a very powerful cytotoxic protein that destroys tissue and causes blood clotting. A puff adder bite causes immediate severe pain, feeling like you have boiling oil injected into you, swelling, blistering, nausea, vomiting and later on necrosis with massive muscle and tissue damage and a bite from these snakes are of very high medical importance.

These snakes, just like all other snakes play a vital role in our ecosystem, and without snakes we could sit with a major rodent problem. Rodents like mice and rats cause a lot of damage in homes as they chew on just about anything, and can even start house fires when they chew on electrical cables. So please do not harm or try to kill a snake when you come across one.

I understand removing venomous snakes from homes and gardens and we've even had some folks leave snakes like Mole snakes, Olive House snakes, Aurora House snakes, Spotted Bush snakes (Skaap Steker) and Herald snakes live in their garden after speaking to them about the positive roles that snakes have.

We would like to thank the homeowner for contacting us to remove the snake, and not harming or killing the snake.

Thank you for all of your support and the following of our rescues. Without you none of this would be possible.

If you would like to aid or support us in what we are doing to help cover fuel, animal food supplies, vet bills and aftercare supplies, you can do so via EFT or PayPal. Banking details are as follows

Helderberg Wildlife Rescue
Capitec Bank
Savings account
1672019255
or
PayPal account is under [email protected]

Greetings community, friends, suppawters and followers. It has been a while since we've posted a rescue, but we had our hands full with life. However this rescue deserves a same day post.

Our morning started off bright and early with a call for help regarding a Duiker that was stuck in a gate. So, off we go to do what we do best asking the home owner to cover her head with a towel or blanket to reduce any stress as these creatures die very easily from stress or shock. On arrival, one of the Spca's inspectors was already on scene waiting for us to arrive as this rescue was going to be a teamwork effort.

The one neighbor brought some cottonwool so that I could put it in her ears to block out as much sound as possible while keeping her head covered as the homeowner, without any hesitation had no issue with cutting his gate so that we could free this poor critter. Holding her down firmly as the grinder would obviously make a noise that could make the duiker stress even more and go into capture shock, I put my head down on her head and within seconds, the gate was cut and we could free the Duiker.

A quick field assessment showed no visible serious injuries other than some scratches and scrapes from the gate when she tried to free herself. She was loaded into the Spca vehicle to be taken to the vet and have a proper assessment done. Spca will keep us up to date as to what the outcome is and when she will be able to be released back into the area where she was found.

A massive thank you to the homeowner for his selfless act of not even thinking twice to cut the gate so that the Duiker could be saved. You sir, are a true animal rescue hero. A huge thank you to everyone that was there and helped keep the duiker calm until we arrived on scene.

Thank you for all of your support and the following of our rescues. Without you none of this would be possible.

If you would like to aid or support us in what we are doing to help cover fuel, animal food supplies, vet bills and aftercare supplies, you can do so via EFT or PayPal. Banking details are as follows

Helderberg Wildlife Rescue
Capitec Bank
Savings account
1672019255
or
PayPal account is under [email protected]

We currently fall under Farm Paws' NPO number until the process of our NPC registration is complete. For those requesting Sec18 forms for tax returns, please use the following banking details with the reference Helderberg Wildlife Rescue

Farm Paws Raithby
Mercantile Bank
Cheq/Current Acc No: 1050-777-093
NPC:2020/522905/08
PBO: 930072405

Howzit community, friends, suppawters and followers. Here is another update for those following the story of Zeus.
But for those that doesn't know, I'll recap.

Zeus was confiscated from terrible conditions and suspected dog fighting. Most dogs that are used for dog fighting, are Pit Bulls, giving this breed a very bad reputation. Yes, they are a "power breed" and yes, they can be working dogs. They are incredibly smart. But they can also be goofy, silly, playful, loving and protective over their family.

In most dog fighting cases, the dogs used for those fights are put to sleep without doing an assessment to see if the dog can't be re-homed to live a better life. And in some of those cases I would agree with having the dog put to sleep. Some of those dogs can be rehabilitated and re-homed, and it has been done before.

Now Zeus is my first suspected dog fighting patient that I personally am busy nursing and rehabilitating. When we first confiscated him, he was tied down with a very thick chain, badly wounded and emaciated which points to him being a 'bait dog'. After taking him to incredible team at Teva Vet, his wounds were cleaned, got a few stitches across his face and shoulder and was put on a 2 course antibiotics to fight off any secondary infection.

His wounds are healing at a fast pace, and slowly but surely he is picking up weight as he is on a Hills large breed puppy food diet, and he absolutely loves droëwors, so I go get him plenty of that. But he still needs to pick up a significant amount of weight to be at a suitable weight. Now as you'll see in the video, he is full of life and joy. He walks by my side with and without a leash and loves to play. You'll also see how nicely his wounds are healing and what a gentle soul he is.

I have done small and very controlled introductions of other animals like cats, chickens and dogs including a tiny little puppy. The reason for this, is to closely monitor his behavior and reactions to see if he could find a home that has other animals. And it looks very good so far.

Thank you to those who has contributed to help with the rehabilitation of Zues, we want to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU. I'll post some photos later on as Facebook doesn't allow videos and images to be posted and I am working on before and after photos.

Thank you for all of your support and the following of our rescues. Without you none of this would be possible.

If you would like to aid or support us in what we are doing to help cover fuel, animal food supplies, vet bills and aftercare supplies, you can do so via EFT or PayPal. Banking details are as follows

Helderberg Wildlife Rescue
Capitec Bank
Savings account
1672019255
or
PayPal account is under [email protected]