Press Release
New Home for Tess after a winter in the hill
Environmental Health wish to thank everybody who has been assisting in the search, capture and rehoming of Tess the Sheepdog who has been living wild in the Staney Hill for four months. The story of her eventful winter and her re-homing is detailed below.
Tess was initially owned as a sheepdog but when she was found to be ‘not much good’ the crofter was going to dispose of her. She was taken in as a pet but escaped within a week. The owners let the Dog Wardens know that she'd escaped but they couldn't catch her. She then spent 4 months out in the Staney Hill area this winter. The Dog Wardens spent hours trying to catch her but failed. As the months went on there were more and more sighting and calls about her, but every time they went to get her she would escape.She was roaming freely and feeding on rabbits but was too spooked to come near other dogs or the Dog Wardens.
In the end the Dog Wardens werenotified that shehad stolen a chicken from a house at Unicorn View at Christmasand had been returning to the area looking for more food, and howling in the night to attract attention (probably as she was getting hungry as the weather turned foul).The Dog Wardens asked thehouseholderto start leaving food for her to encourage her to feed regularly there, this continued until we were confident that she would eat food from inside one of the Dog Warden's cages. The Dog Wardens contacted Aberdeenshire Council toborrow a dog trap.With the assistance from theSSPCA we arranged for the trap to be delivered to the boat. Within two hours of the trap being setthe dog was caught.She was taken to the vets for a medical.
She went to the Council kennels where she was cared for and nurtured back to health. She needed treatment and very careful handling as she was so scared of contact with humans after being wild for so long and was not good around other dogs. Dog wardens try to find new homes for stray dogs, rather than putting them down.No onethe dog wardens knew of weresuitable in Shetland to take her as she as she needed lots of time and one-to-one attention. Environmental Health has an arrangement with a Rescue Centre on the Mainland who will take the dogs we can't re-home in Shetland. Unfortunately they couldn't take the dog because they have shared kennels and couldn't give the care and attention that this dog needed to become socialised before re-homing properly.
After a number of leads the Dog Wardens found the Border Collie Rescue Centre from Yorkshire who agreed to travel to Edinburgh to collect the dog. The Dog Wardens constructed an Air Freight container to allow her to travel on the plane and was flown to Edinburgh last Tuesday. The Rescue Centre has confirmed that she has settled in nicely and bonded with one of the female volunteers already.
The Environmental Health team are delighted that she has been found safely and is on the way to finding a good home. For more information and/ or photographs of Tess please contact Maggie Dunne 01595 744841