Animal rescuers from the RSPCA faced a series of extraordinary challenges throughout 2025, dealing with everything from a lost seabird blown far inland to a corn snake on the loose in a London chip shop. The charity has now released a compilation of its most unusual and heart-warming rescue missions from the past year, highlighting the diverse and often baffling situations its officers encounter.
From Urban Jungles to Sewer Systems
Some of the most dramatic incidents involved animals finding themselves in peculiarly urban predicaments. In a startling case in October 2025, RSPCA Inspectors Boris Lasserres and Cara Gibbon had to don dry suits to save a kitten, nicknamed 'Olivia Twist', from a sewage flow system in Handsworth, Birmingham. The tiny animal's "booming meows" had alerted stunned site staff. "She was trapped down a sewage flow system and we think she must have fallen from quite a height," said Cara Gibbon. The kitten, who had been stranded for at least three days, made a full recovery and was later rehomed.
Meanwhile, the culinary world was unexpectedly disrupted in July 2025 when a business owner in Greenwich, London, discovered a snake slithering around his fish and chip shop. Initially feared to be a python, the reptile was identified as a harmless corn snake that had escaped from a nearby property. In another reptile rescue, officers saved a grass snake found caught in an illegal glue trap in Liskeard, Cornwall.
Wildlife in Perilous Places
The charity's work extended deep into the British countryside and coastline, aiding wild animals in bizarre circumstances. One of the year's most remarkable tales was the rescue of a lost puffin, affectionately named 'Oona', in July 2025. The exhausted bird had been blown an astonishing 110 miles inland and was discovered in a garden in Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire. After being nursed back to health, Oona was successfully returned to the Pembrokeshire coast.
Other avian dramas included a peregrine falcon becoming tangled in anti-bird netting on a block of flats in Druids Heath, Birmingham, in April 2025. A seagull also had a lucky escape after getting caught in a football net in Ramsgate, Kent, in February. It wasn't only birds struggling with nets; in Sheffield, a badger found itself tangled in a football goal.
Foxes seemed particularly prone to mishaps. In January, one fox cub needed help after getting stuck inside the engine of an Amazon delivery van in Derby, only being spotted when it gnawed through a cable and triggered a dashboard warning light. Another fox in Mottingham, South East London, slipped on garden furniture and got its paw firmly stuck between the slats of a chair.
A Record Year for Rescue Calls
The compilation also featured more conventional but equally vital rescues, underscoring the charity's relentless workload. These included:
- An overweight raccoon spotted in a garden in Gwennap, Cornwall, in November, which left the homeowner thinking she was "losing her marbles".
- A hedgehog in Cheddar, Somerset, which needed urgent care after being injured by a strimmer, losing many of its spines but making a full recovery.
- A 12-year-old horse rescued from a muddy field in Edenbridge, Kent, after getting its legs stuck in its straps.
- The emotional reunion of a family with their beloved Labrador, Daisy, eight years after she was stolen from their Norfolk garden.
Throughout 2025, the RSPCA received a staggering 634,000 reports about trapped or abused animals, marking one of the charity's busiest years on record. More than 634,000 users visited the RSPCA website to report a concern, with 7,279 visits during the Christmas period from December 24 to 29 alone.
RSPCA Superintendent Simon Osborne stated: "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." With rescuers braced for a further surge in reports over the winter, the RSPCA has launched an urgent fundraising appeal, The Big Give Back to Animals, to support its frontline officers.
