TEENAGER Cara Warrington came to the rescue of a stranded seal pup – cutting it free from the fishing net it was entangled in and cleaning its wounds.
The 18-year-old used scissors, anti-bacterial spray and saline solution from the horse grooming kit in her car boot to help the frightened animal.
Miss Warrington, of Chaucer Road, Felixstowe, was called by her grandmother Catherine Wright, who discovered the seal while walking her two dogs on the shore at Landguard.
Miss Warrington said: “I went straight down and when I arrived I found the seal not far from the ramp to the beach.
“It was tangled in fishing netting, with line and rope all round its neck and was finding it hard to breathe.
“There was a deep cut part of the way round its neck caused by the net.
“I used the scissors from my horse grooming kit to cut off the netting – it was a bit panicky and kept trying to bite me!
“I then cleaned the wound with the saline solution and it went back into the sea.”
Miss Warrington, who works at the Clifftop Café in Felixstowe and is also a volunteer at the town’s Blue Cross animal rescue centre, said her gran and a beach walker helped hold the seal while she worked on it. Her dog Tilly, a Blue Cross rescue dog, found the seal.
She alerted the RSPCA about the seal’s plight and officers from the charity later found it and took it into care.
The Marine Conservation Society has issued a series of warnings to fishermen to make sure they clear up their lines, hooks and netting to protect wildlife.
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