Cornwall’s New Seal Hospital

In the Southwest of England, there are two rehabilitation centres for grey seal pups – the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek and RSPCA West Hatch in Somerset. However, over the last few years, these facilities have become overwhelmed with pups being admitted due to the increasing severity and numbers of storms hitting our coast at the same time of year the grey seals give birth to their young. Another factor could be human disturbances at important pupping sites, also causing the pups to become separated from their mothers too soon.

Grey Seal Mothers

Grey seal mothers only stay with their pups for 3 weeks; during which time the pup needs every feed of their mother’s milk to fatten up enough to survive on their own. If they become separated too early, this can be fatal for the vulnerable young seal, so the charity is often called to reports of seals who are underweight and struggling or injured in storms, needing a helping hand to survive.

For many years BDMLR has supported the Southwest’s seal rehab facilities by offering (what was supposed to be) overnight care at a very simple makeshift seal treatment unit. However, as the seal rescue centres have become busier, the volunteers of BDMLR have been depended on more and more, with their small seal care facility not being enough; leaving some volunteers even looking after seals at their own property! Many seals could even be in the care of volunteers for up to 3 weeks before a space opens up at a rehabilitation facility, so the time had come to build something much more suitable to give these poorly seals the care that they need.