A LACK of specialist facilities for injured seal pups in Jersey could lead to increased cases of euthanasia, the Jersey co-ordinator of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity has warned.
Donna de Gruchy, who last week helped manage the rescue operation for 13 dolphins trapped at La Rocque, said that increased cases of seal pups washed up around the Island highlighted a worrying “bigger picture” for the BDMLR.
“Euthanasia is coming in a lot more because the UK are struggling with rehabilitation and they are having to euthanise some that it would be inhumane to put back in the sea knowing they are just going to starve.
“Obviously, I don’t want to deal with that but it looks like it’s a thing that’s going to start happening.
“There is definitely a bigger picture of what needs to go on in the future but at the moment we don’t have the facilities at our local shelter and we don’t have the charity thinking of building a rehabilitation facility,” she said.
Mrs de Gruchy expressed her gratitude to the BDMLR’s team of Jersey volunteers and acknowledged the work of the Guernsey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – which has rehabilitated 18 seal pups from Jersey – as well as the support of Iris Freight CI, which has transported seal pups free of charge between the islands. But she described the absence of local rehabilitation as “a real issue”.
Following Monday’s dramatic dolphin rescue at La Rocque, the first “mass stranding” Mrs de Gruchy has dealt with in her 20 year association with the charity, Mrs de Gruchy speaks – in today’s Saturday Interview on pages 10 and 11 – about the organisation’s work in Jersey and the increased demand for its services.
