Nuneaton animal rescuer's work hit by queues at pumps

Geoff Grewcock is often called to help injured animals by the emergency services

A wildlife sanctuary owner said "massive queues" at filling stations had left him short on fuel and unable to rescue some injured animals.

Geoff Grewcock, who runs a rescue service from his Nuneaton home, said his vehicle was "virtually on empty" and was unable to go on five call outs.

"If we don't get out to get these animals they will die," he said.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said there was no fuel shortage and panic buying was causing supply problems.

Mr Grewcock, who set up Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary 20 years ago, has tried to put diesel in his animal ambulance for the past three days but was faced by long queues, which he believed were caused by "panic buying".

"I did get in one queue but I got called out so I had to leave it and go out. It's so frustrating," he said.

In that case, he was called locally to a deer stuck in some fencing, but said most calls, particularly at night, were to animals in road collisions.

The sanctuary looks after many different animals, including foxes, deer and birds

"We bring the animals back here to treat them in our purpose-built hospital and we also have our own vet," he said.

He said sometimes the animals needed to be put down because of their injuries, so could suffer longer if they could not be reached.

The purpose-built vehicle takes animals to the sanctuary from across Warwickshire

Mr Grewcock said being low on fuel meant they had mainly stuck to "very local" call outs and the five they did not attend involved four deer and a badger.

"We don't know what happened to those animals," he added.

Queues have been reported at stations across the West Midlands, including one in Halesfield, Telford

A shortage of lorry drivers has affected fuel deliveries, but Mr Shapps said he had introduced measures to help the situation and added he had checked with refineries and storage centres and insisted there was "plenty of fuel".

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