Thirteen fox cubs rescued by Gloucestershire animal rescue centre

  • Vale Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre has already rescued thirteen fox cubs

An animal rescue centre has said it already has thirteen fox cubs to look after, as it gears up for its busiest season.

Staff at Vale Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, near Tewkesbury, said they are working flat out to keep the young pups bottle-fed, while also preparing for the arrival of many more injured animals.

"We're coming up to our busiest season, the baby season," said wildlife care assistant, Megan Phillips.

"We will start to get the baby birds, the fox cubs, the badger cubs - every sort of baby now.

"The winter season is more about rescuing hedgehogs and pigeons for us, but we are starting to step into our baby season, which does come very quickly.

"We always go from nothing to everything very suddenly!"

The fox cubs will eventually be released back into the wild.

Ms Phillips said staff are working around the clock to rear the fox cubs, so they can eventually be released back into the wild.

She said rearing the cubs is a complex process, as too much exposure to humans will mean they are tame when they are released.

"We want to keep the association with us as minimal as possible," she explained.

"We only handle them when very necessary - that’s why we keep weighing and feeding down to as little as possible.

"We are quite lucky, once they do join other fox cubs they lose any sort of socialising that they have with humans."