THE RSPCA has launched an appeal to trace the owner of a cockerel and hen, found trapped in a hedge at the Creamfields music festival at Daresbury.
The birds appear to have strayed onto the dance music festival’s campsite at the Daresbury Estate near Warrington before the four-day event started. They were spotted in a hedge by festival goers, one of whom helped RSPCA Inspector Leanne Cooper with her rescue on Saturday, August 29.
Leanne said: “I was surprised that they were inside the festival site and I needed to get through the road blocks and security before reaching them on foot through muddy fields. I met the caller who helped me as they were just running up and down the hedgeline where there was a wire fence blocking access.
“We managed to guide them out and I caught both of them with my rescue net, which was a bit of a sight for the festival campers.
The trapped birds
“I don’t think they were abandoned and they’re more likely to be stray because it’s farmland all around the festival site. They don’t have any health issues, apart from being quite underweight. With the fences going up a week before the festival starts, they’d probably been unable to get out for some time and had been left foraging in the hedge. Someone mentioned that a third bird was also trapped, although we couldn’t find any others. I am really grateful to the festival-goer who found them and alerted us to their plight.”
Leanne spoke with a local farmer and while none of his birds were missing, it is believed the pair were being kept on a smallholding in the area.
Both birds are recovering from their ordeal at RSPCA Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre, but if no one comes forward, they will be rehomed.
The cockerel has a distinctive black and orange plumage, while the hen’s feathers are white.
Anyone with any information about the ownership of the birds should contact the RSPCA on 0300 1238018 and quote reference number 01892547.
The RSPCA has information about what people should do if they come across trapped birds on its website.
