Animal sanctuary's events hit by bird flu outbreak

Volunteer Hayley Harford said the sanctuary had stopped taking in new animals for the time being, to reduce the risk of bird flu spreading

An animal sanctuary has been forced to cancel its upcoming fundraising events following an outbreak of bird flu at a nearby farm.

More than 10,000 birds were culled after cases of a highly pathogenic avian flu were detected at a poultry farm near Wybunbury, Cheshire, on 13 October.

As a result of the outbreak, a 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone were put in place around the site to prevent the disease from spreading.

Footprints Animal Sanctuary in nearby Madeley confirmed it had to cancel its Halloween open day, which was scheduled to take place on Sunday, due to the site being within the protection zone.

Volunteer Hayley Harford said the sanctuary, which cared for up to 190 rescued farm animals, would most likely have to cancel its Christmas fundraising event too.

She told BBC Radio Stoke the site was "fully reliant" on its volunteers, many of whom work full-time jobs, to ensure their birds were safe.

"The volunteers understand. A lot of us have been through this before and the key thing is keeping our animals safe," she added. "It can be demoralising."

The animal sanctuary says it rescued 278 animals in the last year

Ms Harford said the sanctuary had stopped taking in new animals for the time being to reduce the risk of bird flu spreading.

"It means there are animals out there that need a home and we aren't able to support them. It's really sad," she said.

"But we have to reduce the risk for the birds we have at the moment."

She said tickets for the Halloween event, of which 80% had been sold, were all refunded and Footprints "took the hit" on the money lost through transaction fees.

To try and make-up for the loss of funds, Ms Harford said the sanctuary had launched its 2026 animal calendar and had started an online raffle.