Seal pups are cute, but they can't be taken home as pets from the East Winch Wildlife Centre in Norfolk, England, where over a hundred of them are currently being held following a September flooding along Britain's eastern coast, NHPR reported.
Instead, the center must extend their usual means and prolong the pups' survival for the next five months until they're ready to move back into the wild. The babies, still white until they further mature, are literally living wherever the shelter can fit them. In this video (also below), several seals are lounging in what looks to be an operating room. In another photograph, a few pups are living in a locker room shower.
"We have never had a seal rescue project on a scale as big as this before," Allison Charles, manager of the East Winch Wildlife Centre, told NHPR.
The pups separated from their parents and can't survive on their own; many of them are still reliant on their mother's milk and can't swim. At a cost of 22 euros just to feed each seal, Charles and colleague need outside help, accoring to NHPR.
"If it wasn't for us, these seal pups would starve to death,' said Charles. "But we really need the public's help because without their donations we simply couldn't do what we do."
As part of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) network, the center is the subject of a public appeal begun three months ago.
"Today we launched a crisis appeal to support the East Winch Wildlife Centre which is caring for more than 100 orphaned seal pups following the recent floods on the Norfolk coast," the RSPCA's statement read on Sept. 9.
The seals in question are Grey seals, one of two species of seal found in England's waters. The other is the Common seal, which is actually much rarer. Common seal pups can swim at birth. Grey seals stay on land for the first three weeks of life befre they can swim, according to marine-conservation.org.
