THOUSANDS of visitors enjoyed a walk on the wild side courtesy of a Leatherhead charity at the weekend.

On Sunday Wildlife Aid, based in Randalls Road, opened its doors to let members of the public see the vital veterinary work it carries out on Surrey's wild animals.

The fun extended beyond the animal kingdom, with displays of archery, fencing, dancing and some altogether more unusual activities.

Becky Banning, a staff member at the charity, said one of the highlights was a "human fruit machine".

She explained: "It looked like a fruit machine with three holes but there were three people behind it who were wearing animal masks.

"There was a ringmaster and what happens is that a kid pulled the cane, which is like the arm of a fruit machine, and then the three people behind held up a piece of fruit from a table behind them."

Last year there had been fears that the charity would not be able to continue its annual open day because of the recession's bite.

But according to Simon Cowell, who co-founded Wildlife Aid and stars in TV programme Wildlife SOS about the charity's work, this year's open day went beyond all expectations.

He said: "It was manic and there was an amazing amount of people. We did incredibly well, we had more people than last year and I would guess there were about 5,000 people.

"Unless you are the Queen you don't often have that amount of people in your garden.

"We had people from South Africa, Holland, Wales, Ireland, from all over the place."

The day also had an antipodean twist as Nigel Williamson, who runs a Wildlife Aid-style hospital in Melbourne, was on hand to talk to visitors about his work in Australia.

Mr Cowell, who visited Nigel's Animal Rescue for last year's series of Wildlife SOS, added: "He is very experienced and has been doing it for the same amount of time, although the animals he has to deal with are far more dangerous than ours."

The amount of money raised for the charity by the open day will be counted by the end of this week.