South

This might seem bizarre, but the animal story on this week’s Inside Out was actually one of the first things I filmed when I joined the show back in May 2007.

Those long, sunny days certainly seem an age ago but the random world of scheduling dictates that it’s only now being shown.

And it was quite an introduction to Inside Out.

Before I’d got a chance to sit at my new desk or sample the delights of the BBC canteen, I was suddenly in the middle of the Dorset countryside 'poo-picking', 'pig boarding' and up to my neck in water and dog hair with a bemused German Shepherd.

Yes, I was packed off to the Margaret Green Foundation’s sites in Church Knowle and Winterbourne Kingston to acquaint myself with one or two characters including Belle, an asthmatic pony, Mary the sunburnt pig and George, a three-legged greyhound.

Never a dull moment

It’s hard not to be taken aback by the scale on which the foundation operates.

It seems both the dog shelter and the Church Knowle sanctuary are constantly operating at capacity so there’s never a dull moment.

Plus the variety of creatures taken into the care of the foundation’s dedicated staff is genuinely surprising with feral goats, chipmunks, and a fledgling chick lining up alongside the foundation’s more numerous dogs, cats and horses.

And that’s what we wanted to look at: sanctuaries like the Margaret Green Foundation have been around for quite a while, but why do we still need them and how has their role changed over the years?

When I was about 10-years-old, I went through a fund-raising phase for the Blue Cross, terrorising neighbours with a strange combination of badly baked cookies and spider plant cuttings in return for charitable contributions.

But when I think back it was all about helping unwanted cats and dogs in those days.

From what I saw during my time in Dorset, it now seems that there’s a bizarre range of pets that need rescuing.

I certainly don’t remember people keeping pot-bellied pigs in their garden when I was a lad…

Human impact

But after spending a few days on site, it’s the human impact of the foundation that begins to become apparent.

From personal experience I know it’s never easy giving up a loved pet because circumstances change or you can no longer cope for one reason or another, but the relief, hope and support that the Foundation Trust can offer really makes a difference.

And, it has to be said that the animals seem to get a good deal out of it too.

I’d never realised there were so many ways hay could be served up to horses – if only Egon Ronay handed out stars for equine catering…