Shuttle service to save wildlife

The cost of cleaning birds in the wake of the Sea Empress oil tanker disaster could run in to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

RSPCA officials say they do not yet know who will foot the bill for the massive wildlife rescue operation. A spokesman said yesterday: "All we can do is save as many birds as we can and think about the price of the rescue later."

The average cost of cleaning one bird is estimated at about pounds 30 and rescue workers and volunteers expect to pick up thousands from along the Pembrokeshire coastline over the coming weeks.

The birds that can be saved - normally only half of those that are rescued - will need intensive care for at least a week after they are found.

Three wildlife centres run by volunteers in the South Wales region can cater for only 300 casualties between them - and already 400 oiled birds have been spotted along the coastline.

The RSPCA has three shuttle vehicles standing by to ferry birds to its wildlife hospital 200 miles away at Taunton in Somerset, the only centre in the country that has the facilities to cater for thousands of oiled birds.

Romain DeKerckhove, an RSPCA officer, said: "The cost of a rescue operation on the scale we are expecting doesn't bear thinking about. But our main concern is to pick up as many birds as possible before they die."

The biggest killer of oiled birds is dehydration caused by ingested oil and shock. Rescuers' first task when they find casualties will be to administer lectade - the bird equivalent of a drip - through a tube inserted in the throat. Then they will be loaded in to cages in the waiting trucks and taken on the four-hour journey to Taunton.

Colin Seddon, deputy manager of the RSPCA Wildlife Hospital, said the birds will receive round-the-clock care, but many are expected to die.