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With record numbers of seals needing their care and attention at the moment, the GSPCA staff and volunteers have been left saddened by the death of the latest one they were asked to help.
On Thursday lunch time the charity was called out to Jerbourg to attend what had been identified by a member of the public as "a very poorly grey seal pup".
The GSPCA's Head of Marine Mammals Geoff George with Team Member Neil Hughes headed to the scene and brought the seal pup back to the animal shelter but unfortunately it died shortly after arriving.
Steve Byrne, the GSPCA Manager said his team are all affected when they are unable to help an animal.
“The GSPCA are deeply saddened to say we were called out to a poorly seal pup at Jerbourg and despite our best efforts he passed away shortly after being rescued.
“The pup was extremely sick and emaciated and there was nothing we could do," he said.
Pictured: The GSPCA has seven seals in its care at the moment - the eighth died before they could offer any medical assistance.
Mr Byrne recently confirmed to Express that the GSPCA was seeing unprecedented numbers of seal pups needing their help, with seven at the animal shelter receiving care.
He said that the addition of the seal pup rescued from Jerbourg meant that for a short period of time there were eight seal pups in their care, "...the most we have ever had in our 150 year history.”
"...the other five pups; Shakespeare, Emilia, Echo, Hector, and Cleopatra rescued this season, continue to do well and improve daily and the two from last year, Luna C and Auora, will be released very soon," he said.
Feeding seven seal pups - and any others they are called to assist with - means the charity is going through large amounts of fish. Mr Byrne reminded us of the different ways to donate to support their work through the GSPCA website.
Mr Byrne continued: “In the last decade we have rescued and released 23 grey seal pups back into the wild and the seven in our care are keeping us very busy.
“The recent rough weather caused many wildlife casualties and when around the coast to keep a close eye for other poorly animals.
"We have some great web pages with advice on what to do if you see a seal pup which are being born at this time of year or oiled birds, although we are only a call away on 257261."
Pictured top: Cleopatra the seal rescued by the GSPCA in January is still recovering well.
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