Animal Welfare and Therapy Centre Guide

The Animal Welfare Centre houses over 100 different species of animals.

The Animal Therapy Centre has grooming, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy facilities.

Animal Welfare and Therapy Centre Guide

Introduction

The Animal Welfare and Therapy Centre guide is designed to give students and other visitors to the centres a brief appreciation of the centres enterprises, their aims, objectives and performance.

Moulton College currently houses two centres dedicated to the welfare of animals.

The Animal Welfare Centre is undergoing new projects to improve animal facilities and increase animal diversity. Currently we are constructing a new exhibit to house a group of Slender-tailed Meerkats. This will be a new species of animal to join the unit and will give the students further knowledge of the husbandry of exotic animals. We are also building a six- flight aviary to relocate the all the birds from their existing enclosure to these modern purpose built aviaries, which will have indoor and outdoor flight facilities.

The Animal Welfare Centre

The Animal Welfare centre holds a wide range of animals and gives students the chance to learn the best ways to house, care for and handle these animals. The centre promotes best practice in all aspects of animal husbandry and is run to a commercial standard so students get a real feel for what the animal care industry is all about.

The Animal Therapy Centre

The Animal Therapy centre consists of a commercially run canine hydrotherapy pool, grooming parlour and canine and feline physiotherapy suite. The business is open to members of the public to bring their pets for a professional groom or for treatment in the hydrotherapy pool and physiotherapy suite, by trained and qualified personnel.

Students have the chance to learn about these therapies by observing the qualified staff in action and assisting with day-to-day tasks and duties. Members of the public can also choose to have their dogs groomed by students still learning the skills associated with bathing and clipping at a discounted rate.

The Staff

The centres are managed on a day-to-day basis by the Animal Welfare Centre Manager and supported by animal technicians and qualified hydrotherapist, dog groomer and physiotherapist.

The Animal Welfare Centre

The centre houses over 100 different species of animals, ranging from tiny mangrove crabs to steppe lemmings to wallabies.

The animal welfare centre holds a pet shop licence, which allows for the breeding of animals and their sale to members of the public and other pet shops. Breeding programmes are set up to manage the numbers and students get to see how a commercial animal business runs.

The centre has a state-of-the-art record keeping system used globally by all large animal collections and can produce detailed reports on anything from stock lists to relationship reports to detailed daily note lists.

Reptiles

The reptile unit holds a diverse collection of animals including tortoises, a range of small snakes and a boa constrictor, a number of different lizard species, including a chameleon, and a wide variety of invertebrates such as cockroaches, tarantulas, scorpions, giant land snails and giant millipedes. Students get to handle all of these animals and learn about their specific care needs. They learn the correct way to keep these species in a captive environment as well as their behaviour and habits in their wild habitat.

Small Mammals

The small mammals include a number of exotic species, as well as the common guinea pigs and rabbits. Within the unit are wild species such as African zebra grass mice, Gunther's voles and steppe lemmings. Some of them are not as easy to handle as the domesticated mouse or rat. This experience of dealing with wild species that are unused to being in the company of people is a new learning curve for the students. The unit also includes the exotic room, which boasts common marmosets, a small South American primate and sugar gliders, an unusual Australian marsupial species. Other species include chipmunks, rats, ferrets and chinchillas.

Aquatics

The Aquatic room provides students with a wide variety of fish species as well as amphibians, turtles and crustaceans. All of these animals require special care and have particular husbandry needs. The turtles are part of an endangered species programme - in Asia there is a huge trade in these animals for meat. From this students learn about the importance of conservation and the protection of threatened species in the wild. The giant gourami fish at 2ft long shows students that even fish can have attitude and that, regardless of the animal they are working with, they need to take care.

Birds

The Aviary Building hosts a number of birds including cockatiels, lovebirds, canaries, budgerigars, doves and a variety of parrots including Amazons and Kakariki.

A lot of these birds are not handled, because this can cause them a great deal of stress. Students learn from this how to behave around timid species, about fight and flight patterns and how dangerous stress can be to some animals.

Large Animals

The large outdoor unit area holds the centre's largest animals. These include goats, wallabies, alpacas, llamas, Kune Kune pigs and rhea. The Kune Kune pigs are a rare breed from New Zealand but are great for handling and student interaction, as they love the company of people. The llamas are quite intimidating at over 6ft tall and students learn to respect large animals and to deal with their fear. The South American rhea, related to emu and ostrich, reach 5ft tall and, along with the
Bennett's wallabies, are an unusual sight in Northamptonshire. It is hoped that giving Moulton College students the opportunity to work with these species will give them the edge over other candidates for jobs in zoos and wildlife parks.

The Animal Therapy Centre

The Animal Therapy Centre has grooming, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy facilities all under one roof and is one of the first of its kind in the country.

Technical Receptionists, fully trained in animal and human first aid, are employed to care of dogs, cats and other small mammals from arrival to collection. All animals are given a thorough health check before their appointment and then taken through to the therapy room to meet their therapist.

There are modern, purpose built kennel facilities for dogs waiting for their therapy appointments. These have an indoor area that provides warmth in winter and a cool retreat in summer, and a large outside area for dogs to stretch their legs.

There are also heated indoor kennel facilities for cats and small mammals, and old or unwell dogs.

The Therapy centre has a professional computer system used by a large number of veterinary practices around the country. This stores records on animal consultations and is used to produce a range of financial and animal information reports.

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy has become a popular and effective method of treatment for dogs recovering from surgery or injury, as well as a safe, enjoyable form of exercise for healthy dogs.

The specially designed pool at the therapy centre allows dogs to swim in a controlled environment, which gently exercises every muscle in the dog's body, helping them to rebuild or maintain cardiovascular fitness without the risk of injury.

Dogs are fitted with life jackets and are swum by the qualified hydrotherapist to a specialised programme, which meets the individual needs the dog and the treatment it requires.

Grooming

The grooming parlour is fully equipped with state-ofthe-art grooming technology. Electric tables provide a safe and effective way to get dogs of all sizes to the right level for grooming. A professional bath and drying cabinet ensures the best treatment for pets coming to be bathed, clipped or groomed.

The service includes nail clipping, anal gland cleaning and ear cleaning and is carried out by a qualified and experienced groomer.

A range of grooming tools allow the qualified groomer to carry out specific breed styles, and cats and small mammals are also catered for.