Dorothy and Phyllis Yglesias set up the Mousehole Wild Bird Hospital and Sanctuary in 1928 after they had cared for their first bird, a jackdaw named Jacko. The sanctuary came to fame after caring for over 8,000 sea birds in the aftermath of the 1967 Torrey Canyon supertanker disaster off the Isles of Scilly which spread crude oil around the coast of Cornwall over many years. The Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals took over the hospital in 1953.