Animal SAVIOURS
‘I CAN’T REST UNTIL BADGERS ARE SAFE FROM POLITICS’
Pauline Kidner, 70, is the founder of Secret World Wildlife Rescue. She lives on a Somerset farm with husband Derek, 74.
I first realised I needed to do more than care for rescued wildlife in 1988. I’d been looking after a tawny owl in our farmhouse kitchen and was looking forward to watching him fly back to his natural habitat. As I released him, he flapped about and ended up in the pond – I knew then I needed large enclosures and aviaries, so animals could get back into top condition.
Derek had inherited our farm from his father, but the milk quotas of the 1980s made our dairy herd non-viable, so we decided to run an open farm tourist attraction. People came to see how a farm worked and this funded the animal sanctuary we set up in 1992.
‘We care for 5,000 wildlife casualties and orphans every year’
People would bring me injured or orphaned foxes, otters, swans and bats. Now, we care
