OXFORD: Terrapins found dumped in Headington are now starting a new life in Northamptonshire as an animal sanctuary seeks to re-home them.

Dog walker Sharon Bailey rang the RSPCA when she came across a soggy cardboard box with the bedraggled reptiles, above, inside on December 29.

She said: “They were pretty little things with yellow stripes, drenched in the rain. It seems heartless to have left them in this way.”

RSPCA animal collection officer Dennis Lovell said: “They were in a good condition, they are really quite hardy creatures.

“It’s not that unusual to recover them, terrapins do get dumped on a regular basis.”