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Volunteers rescue second seal with frisbee stuck round neck

The plastic disc is ‘deeply embedded and extremely infected’ and the animal has been taken to an RSPCA centre.
The plastic disc is ‘deeply embedded and extremely infected’ and the animal has been taken to an RSPCA centre.

An animal rescue group has found a second seal with a frisbee stuck round its neck on the Norfolk coast.

The first Atlantic grey, nicknamed Mrs Frisbee, was rescued at Horsey beach in 2017 by volunteers from the Friends Of Horsey Seals group.

The yellow plastic disc, which cut into the seal’s neck as she grew bigger, was removed at the RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Centre near King’s Lynn.

Seal trapped in frisbee
The seal was first spotted in September (Glenn Mingham/ Friends of Horsey Seals/PA)

She was nursed back to health and released into the wild in February this year.

David Vyse, of Friends of Horsey Seals, said a second seal was rescued at Horsey beach on Wednesday.

The seal, with a pink plastic disc around her neck, has been named Mrs Pink Frisbee by the group.

She was first spotted in September and a team of four volunteers has finally managed to capture her using special nets and a stretcher.

Seal trapped in frisbee
Mrs Frisbee was nursed back to health at the RSPCA’s East Winch Wildlife Centre (Joe Giddens/PA)

Mr Vyse described it as a “horrible predicament” for Mrs Pink Frisbee, a female grey seal who he estimates is about four years old.

He said the frisbee is “deeply embedded and extremely infected”.

Mrs Pink Frisbee has been taken to the RSPCA centre at East Winch for treatment, he said.

Mr Vyse said there have been four more reported sightings of seals with frisbees around their necks off the Norfolk coast.

Seal trapped in frisbee
Mrs Frisbee was released back into the wild at Horsey Gap in Norfolk (Joe Giddens/PA)

When Mrs Frisbee was admitted to the RSPCA centre last year she was described as having an extended neck like a concertina.

She was given antibiotics and steroids, and fed a mackerel diet.

She swelled from 67kg (10 stone 7lbs) to 180kg (28 stone 4lbs) in the five months before her release back into the North Sea.