Seal 'anchored' down by debris needs months of care

10 hours ago

Zoe ApplegateNorfolk

News image — Members of the public helped volunteers to stretcher Doughnut off Horsey beach in Norfolk after fears grew for her welfare

RSPCA Doughnut looks up at the camera and is covered in brown mottled spots. She has black eyes and a wide injury around her neck that has exposed her flesh. She is laying on a concrete floor. — Members of the public helped volunteers to stretcher Doughnut off Horsey beach in Norfolk after fears grew for her welfare

A seal that became tangled in a heavy "anchor" of fishing nets, ropes and hooks is in a "touch and go" condition, the RSPCA has said.

The year-old seal, named Doughnut by carers, had her neck sliced open by a 4kg (8.8lbs) twisted mass of ropes and debris and is now receiving emergency treatment at the RSPCA's East Winch wildlife centre in Norfolk.

She was rescued from Horsey on Sunday when volunteers from Friends of Horsey Seals hauled her out of the sea after their concerns deepened over weeks of spotting her trapped.

"Doughnut had become severely entangled in a mass of netting, twine, fishing hooks and metal," said centre manager Evangelos Achilleos.

RSPCA A mass of blue ropes, netting and rubbish is piled up on a cream tiled floor. — The mass of rubbish caused a severe injury to Doughnut's neck

"[It] had knotted together to become an anchor weighing her down in the water, cutting deeply into her flesh, draining her of energy, leaving her in unimaginable pain and preventing her from swimming or hunting properly.

"When this horrid mass was finally removed from her we were horrified to discover that it weighed around 4kg."

Achilleos said Doughnut would need months of treatment to recover from the "dreadful" 3in-deep (8cm) gash.

Sally Butler, chairwoman of the Friends of Horsey Seals charity, said members of the public helped to stretcher Doughnut off the beach.

"It's very rare for us to attempt a rescue at this time of year - with so many heavily pregnant seals around, it wouldn't be right for us to disturb them and cause them stress," she said.

"But we were doubtful as to whether Doughnut would survive until the end of the pupping season, so we decided to attempt a rescue even though she wasn't close to the water's edge."

She added that the team was also aware of other entangled seals in the colony and hoped to try to rescue them too.

East Winch wildlife centre said the number of such incidents had risen heavily and it had cared for 104 seals with necklace-type injuries since 2008, when it started keeping records.

Nine of those seals had died, but the centre had rehabilitated and released 95 back into the wild.