He's got plenty to crow about.
Russell the crow must be the luckiest bird alive.
He has been hand reared back to health by Kirklees College’s Animal Care Centre after he was found badly injured in the road last year.
And not only have his broken feathers been healed, he has had surgery for cataracts that would have killed him had he still been wild.
Now after more than 12 months of caring for Russell, staff and students at the college are preparing to release him back to the wild.
Senior animal care technician Jo Hill said Russell must be the only crow in the country to have had an eye operation.
She said: “In normal circumstances there’s no way anyone would help.
“But we often take in injured animals that students find in the road.
“He was a fledgling when we took him in and because crows only moult once a year we had to keep him until his new feathers grew.
“He has been in rehabilitation over the past year, but then he developed cataracts in both eyes so he would not have been suitable for release and would have been put to sleep.
“I made enquiries and managed to find a veterinary surgeon who specialises in ophthalmology who agreed to operate on Russell for free.
“I made the eight-and-a-half-hour round trip to Newmarket on my day off to take Russell for his operation.
“He is doing extremely well and is due for release in the next couple of weeks.”
Jo said while they had made him the namesake of the famous Australian actor, they had forced themselves not to get attached to him so he could be sent back to nature.
She said: “We’ve had minimal contact with him because they do go tame if they get used to you and that would make it difficult to release him.
“We’ve fed him cat biscuits, dog meat, ticks and mice and let him fly around.
“But you’ve got to be quite stern when you go near him and bang around so he’s still afraid of you.”
Jo said Russell had already caught the attention of a nearby flock of crows and they would soon be leaving his cage open so he could explore the area.
She said: “We’ll let him come and go as he pleases and then one day hopefully he’ll join them and won’t come back.”
Staff at the Taylor Hill based campus are hosting two fundraising open events at their Close Hill Lane premises for people interested in animal care.
The first is a Christmas Fayre on Saturday, December 7, from 10am to 3pm, raising money for the college’s Africa trip.
A Christmas Funday is also planned for Sunday, December 15, from 11am – 3pm to raise cash for Knine & Kitty Care rescue and re-homing for cats and dogs.
