Lock up your pets! Dog owners warned as giant 6ft Eagle Owl is spotted in Devon

It is not something you expect to see while walking down a busy high street.

But passers-by were forced to believe their eyes when this giant Eagle Owl was spotted perched on a the window ledge of a terraced house in Westward Ho!, near Bideford, Devon yesterday.

The enormous bird - one of the world's largest species of owl, has a wingspan of two metres (6ft) and has been known to prey on animals as big as roe deer.  

Surprise visitor: Residents were stunned when they caught sight of this Eagle Owl sitting perched on the window ledge of a terraced house in Westward Ho! near Bideford, Devon

If hungry enough, the owl could easily pounce on small animals like dogs and cats, and residents have been told to report the animal if they spot it.

Passers-by were stunned when the bird was first seen at around 4.30pm yesterday. It sat there an hour-and-a-half but flew off before animal welfare officers could catch it.

Local, Nina Wickmann, 31, who took these photographs of the awesome bird said: 'Some people were looking up and wondering what it was.

Huge: The scale of the Eagle Owl can be seen here as it rested on the window ledge of a house for more than an hour before flying off

UNCOMMON IN BRITAIN, EAGLE OWLS PREFER EASTERN EUROPE AND PARTS OF ASIA

Eagle owls are not listed as a British species and it is believed that the bird seen in Devon may have escaped from a private collection. 

Sightings of the bird have been reported elsewhere in Europe, including Scandinavia, Russia, the Middle East an  Asia, but are rarely seen as far west as Britain.

The powerful birds of prey are distinctive because of their large ear tufts and orange eyes and can grow up to 76cm (2ft) high.  

They feed mostly on small animals such as voles, rats, mice and hares although some have been reported as killing birds as large as herons and animals as big as roe deer, foxes, cats and small dogs.

They are known to live in a range of habitats fromconiferous forests to the edge of vast deserts to rocky areas with cliffs and mountains.

The Eagle Owl is largely nocturnal and can live for 20 years in the wild, although can live up to 60 years in captivity.

'It just sat there until it opened its huge wings and flew to the ledge where I photographed it. 

'It was an incredible sight. It's not every day you see a giant bird of prey in a busy street.  

'When it flew off, it unleashed this huge wingspan. I would be a little nervous if I had a small dog or cat.'

Eagle owls are not listed as a British species and it is believed the bird may have escaped from a private collection.  

It is feared the animal will die in the wild unless rescued and reunited with its owner.

Nina added: 'This is the first time I have seen an eagle owl and it would be nice to see it returned to its home.'

David Rampling, from the Milky Way Bird of Prey Centre in nearby Clovelly, Devon, said: 'If anyone sees this owl please call me and I will do my best to catch it in the most humane way possible.  

'Unfortunately some eagle owl owners don't realise the amount of work and experience needed to keep a bird of this type.  

'They are difficult to train and it's not uncommon for them to escape'.

• The Milky Way Bird of Prey Centre can be contacted on 01237 431 255.

Huge wingspan: The Eagle Owl is large enough to pick up cats and small dogs

The dog with a painful skin condition whose life was saved by PYJAMAS

A dog with a painful skin condition has been saved hours before he was due to be put down - thanks to some new pyjamas.

Mr Bojangles, a five-month-old crossbreed, was due to be put to sleep but was rescued by a charity from Burton, Staffordshire, in the nick of time.

They gave him 'dog pyjamas' to stop him scratching and he is now making a good recovery.

They call me Mr Bojangles: 'Bo' shows off the pyjamas that stop him from scratching and biting himself. He was hours away from being put to sleep when an animal charity in Burton, Staffs, came to his rescue

Life savers: The pyjamas prevent Mr Bojangles from scratching himself, giving his skin a chance to heal while he is treated for the painful skin condition Demodex mange

It turned out that Mr Bojangles has Demodex mange - a contagious skin disease caused by mites - which had not been treated, leading to him scratching and biting his own body to relieve the discomfort.

The charity Impawtant Pups Rescue rescued Mr Bojangles from a dog pound in Cambridgeshire.

 

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Charity worker Emma Nicholson said: 'We went down on Sunday to get him straight away and now he is settled in, with his own sets of pyjamas to keep his wounds covered.'

She said that he is an affectionate dog who gets on well with the others at the pound.

It is hoped that Mr Bojangles will find a new home some time in the future but for now the charity is trying to raise money for treatment.

Neglected: Mr Bojangles' raw and painful legs show just how bad the condition had become, with some wounds open to infection

Sorry, this is a trunk road! Elephant causes safari park jam by lying down in front of traffic

The recent heatwave all got a bit much for this elephant who decided this was as good a spot as any to take the weight off. 

The African elephant, named Five, plonked himself down in front of a queue of traffic at the safari park and stretched out earlier this month. 

Bewildered visitors were left with no choice but to wait until nap-time was over and the 11,000lb creature wandered off to find a quieter spot to sleep in the West Midlands. 

Ready for my close-up: Five the elephant strikes a pose in front of a queue of traffic at a safari park in the West Midlands

The comic pictures were taken by head keeper Andy Plumb, who rushed to grab his camera when he spotted Five. 

He said: 'There was a bit of a traffic jam which lasted a fair amount of time as Five was out for the count and there are rocks along the road to stop drivers leaving the track.

'I think the sun was getting a bit too much for him and he simply had no energy left and just settled down where he was.

 

'When I arrived there was a queue of traffic forming and it just got bigger - he's a bit of a character so I'm not surprised he decided to crash out on a road.

'When he eventually woke up I don't think he knew what all the fuss was about. There was a big cheer and he just wandered off looking for somewhere else to sleep.

'We all had a good laugh about it for the rest of the day.'

Big laughs: Zoo keeper Andy Plumb managed to capture the comic snaps of Five the elephant at the safari park

Man accused of animal cruelty walks free from court after filming himself eating a live baby RAT

Judge ruled creature is 'not a protected species'

Andy Ray Harris had eaten baby creature 'for a dare'

A man accused of animal cruelty has walked free from court after appearing on video eating a live baby rat.

Andy Ray Harris was arrested after chewing and swallowing the tiny, pink rodent during a sickening 45-second clip.

But despite eating the hairless animal and washing it down with a mouthful of beer, Harris, from Tooele, Utah, escaped punishment in court after a judge ruled rats are not a protected species.

Gruesome: Harris prepares to chew on the baby rat during the sickening 45-minute video clip

All done: The 31-year-old then opens his mouth to prove he has gobbled the entire hairless baby animal

The 31-year-old had been charged with aggravated animal abuse in April after police were alerted to the footage which had drawn complaints from horrified internet users.

The disturbing 45-second clip shows the small pink rat squirming on top of a notepad in a pub.

 

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A spectator is then heard goading Harris, by telling him to 'go on and eat it'.

He picks up the helpless creature, snarls at the camera and pushes it into his mouth before chewing for around five seconds and taking a drink.

Disgust: Harris was charged with aggravated animal abuse for eating what appears to be a hairless rat

Stunt: Harris's video on Facebook was reported to the police by the animal cruelty charity PETA after they received complaints

Swig: Harris drinks from an oversized cup during his dare

Animal rights charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reported it to police after a string of complaints.  

Harris told police he ate the rat 'on a dare from my friends' but pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated animal abuse.  

Prosecutors argued the baby rat deserved protection because it was not wild and was killed in a way that is 'not an accepted fashion'.

Grotesque: Harris admitted eating the baby rat for a dare at an earlier court hearing, but left the court unpunished after a judge ruled it was 'not a protected species'

But last week Harris went away from court unpunished after the judge dismissed the charges against him, declaring that rats were not a protected species.

Harris admitted his actions were 'grotesque' but was not cruel.

He'd also claimed his actions were not cruel because the rat was going to be eaten by a snake.

He added that 'for centuries rats have been a scourge to humanity and should have no legal protections'.

 

Unshakeable courage of the real War Horses: The eight million forgotten animals who were killed on the frontline

A lone horse stands faithfully over the corpse of its rider who lies face down, hands still clasped to the animal’s reins. 

How long did the poor creature stay there? Did the horse suffer a similar fate to its rider? 

Elsewhere, another horse is up to its muzzle in mud as it heaves a cart on the Western Front.

Poignant vigil: A cavalry horse stands over the body of its rider - from the book The War Horses, which shows the reality behind the animals forgotten in World War I

They are images which remind us  of the crucial role played by the  forgotten warriors of World War I — the four-legged ones. 

They are also images which run counter to the statistics. A horse was actually more likely to die than its rider.

 

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While ten million men would be killed in the carnage of World War I, the casualty rate was proportionately considerably higher among the warhorses — of which some eight million perished on all sides. 

Of the one million horses which left Britain for the Western Front,  just 60,000 returned. 

And even those animals might never have made it home had it not been for a vigorous campaign by  charities and the Press to save them from French and Belgian abbattoirs.

Weighed down: A supply cart and one of its horses sink into the deadly mud

Fighting trim: This grey is equipped to carry a Vickers machine-gun

A few months from now, cinemas worldwide will be packed for Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited film of Michael Morpurgo’s bestseller, War Horse. 

The first official trailer for the film has been released, and it’s already generating talk of Oscars. 

The stage version, meanwhile, has been breaking West End records since it opened in 2007 (the Queen dropped in unannounced in 2009), and is now enjoying similar success on Broadway. 

But a powerful and haunting new book tells the true story of what happened to the real four-legged troops. And there isn’t much of a happy ending in The War Horses.

As author Simon Butler explains, this was not just ‘the first and last global conflict in which the horse played a vital role’, but also a war which changed the entire relationship between society and the horse.

A nation which had depended on domestic horsepower up until 1914 suddenly lost its workhorses to the front and had to find mechanised alternatives. By 1918, there was no going back.

Total war: A British horse being fitted with an experimental gas mask

Awaiting orders: British cavalrymen like these got little chance for action on the Western Front

His book contains accounts of the military impressment squads which would descend on a village, just like the naval press gangs of yesteryear, and round up all the horses for service. 

Some of the photographs show the bond between horse and man — the men of the Royal Scots Greys watering their animals in a French mill pool, or soldiers on both sides fitting equine gas masks.

Many images show the crucial role of the workhorse/warhorse in shifting the millions of tons of rations and ammunitions up to the front line and bringing back the wounded. 

But there are other images of horses caught up in the hell of modern warfare — some floundering in the mud, others lying injured in the aftermath of battle and many beyond hope.

Thirsty work: The Royal Scots Greys water their mounts in a French mill pond

‘Horses were easier targets than men, and you could do more damage to the enemy’s supply lines if you hit the horses,’ says  Mr Butler, a publisher who lives on Dartmoor, just a couple of miles from where Spielberg filmed War Horse.

Nearly a century after the ‘war to end all wars’, it seems that we are finally giving due recognition to a group of comrades who never gave up and never complained for the simple reason that they could not.

As General Sir Frank Kitson writes in his foreword to the book: ‘As a person who has enjoyed the company of many horses over the years, I thank heaven that I have never had to take one to war.’

The War Horses by Simon Butler (Halsgrove, £19.99).

Pregnant cat thrown out of moving car gives birth in a barn... and then leads RSPCA man to her kittens

A pregnant cat rescued after being hurled from a moving car has stunned an RSPCA inspector by leading him from the scene of the crime to her kittens.

The one-year-old black cat was  thrown out of the window of a vehicle in March, Cambridgeshire, last month.

A passerby spotted her being hurled from the vehicle and kept an eye on her for two weeks before managing to coax her into her greenhouse.

She was taken to the vets for treatment for her grazed face but was returned to the scene as it was clear she had very recently had kittens. 

Inspector Jon Knight said when he took the cat to the scene of the crime she began 'mewling' loudly.

Jolie only stopped crying out when Inspector Knight began to follow her and she led him for over 300m through a back garden, across a field and into a farm yard.

She finally took him into an old barn where he found her four kittens.

Inspector Knight said the one-week-old kittens, left alone while Jolie was being treated, would have died of dehydration without the action of their mother.

 

He said: 'To dump a pregnant cat is cruel but to throw one out of a moving car is just callous. She was only a young cat herself and she is so beautiful and friendly.

'The only thing we could do was take her back to the location where she was dumped. I try not to humanise animals but Jolie wanted me to follow her.

Happy family: Jolie safe and sound with her kittens at Block Fen RSPCA centre in Wimblington, Cambridgeshire

'We knew she had kittens from her medical check and it is quite normal for cats to call out to their kittens to tell them they are home or to call older ones to them.

'But when no kittens came I knew she was calling to me. Every time I stopped, she stopped. She didn't take a direct route, she led me a merry dance to get there.

'In 15 years I have never heard of anything like this before. I would never in a million years have guessed they were there if she hadn't led me to them.

'They would have only lasted two days if I she had not taken me to them.' 

Jolie is now feeding her kittens at an RSPCA centre and they will be put up for adoption after they have been weened.

Maternal: Jolie was rushed to a vet for treatment after a woman saw her being thrown out of the window of a vehicle. She is being looked after by the RSPCA

Homeless after Harry Potter: Canine movie star Padfoot needs a loving family (and they can even be muggles)

While Daniel Radcliffe has gone on to forge an illustrious career on the stage and screen, the fortunes of one of his Harry Potter co-stars have not been quite as lofty.

Black German shepherd Berry, known to millions of children around the world as Padfoot from Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, is looking for a new home.

The ten-year-old mutt, who played the animal version of Gary Oldman's character Sirius Black and the godfather to Radcliffe's character Harry,can no longer be looked after by his owner, Paul Thompson.

Forgotten: Harry Potter star Berry is looking for a new home

Trained stuntman Mr Thompson, said he spends too much time away from home to give Berry the attention he deserves.

He told the Sunday Express he is also looking for a new home for Berry's life-long pal Porridge, a German Shepherd cross.

Porridge is also a star of the screen, with roles in The Bill and the TV adaptation of Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth but at the age of 13 the roles have now dried up.

Enlarge 

Screen star: Berry played the canine version of Gary Oldman in Harry Potter And the Prisoner of Azkaban

Berry, the black German shepherd, as Padfoot

Mr Thompson, said: 'I found myself spending a lot of time away from home. The dogs needed more attention then I could give. It was a difficult decision to make but one I had to accept was best for the dogs.'

The 52-year-old from Elstree, Herts, said he had arranged for the pair, who have been together since they were puppies and cannot be separated, to be fostered by animal re-homing charity German Shepherd Dog Rescue but so far no one has offered them a home.

For more information go to www.germansheperdrescue.co.uk