Meet the poorly seal pups who've been staying in an Airbnb in Cornwall

They have been recovering in style

Author: Sarah YeomanPublished 4th Mar 2021

An Airbnb has been looking after some rather unexpected guests over the winter months.

No it's not lockdown rule breakers... but some injured and poorly seal pups.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) team have been using the home in Perranporth as an overflow unit when things get busy.

It belongs to volunteer Lizzi Larbalestier who set up seal pens in her garage and her annex.

Other parts of the house were turned into medical spaces so the pups could be checked over.

Lizzi told us it was nice to look after some different guests

"It's been great for us to get so close to the seal pups and gain lots more experience caring for them.

"We've had four in our garage and four in our annex and basically we have seal pens set up.

"We have a clinical space where we have a veterinary consultant come in and we have voluntary medics caring for them.

"It's lovely to have guests, different guests, and you learn so much about them. They've all got our own little personalities and characters that come into play.

"It's really important to feel that we're doing something useful around supporting these marine mammals, which are part of our Cornish heritage."

Lizzi Larbalestier, BDMLR

It comes as an appeal launches to build a new dedicated seal hospital in Cornwall.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue spend the winter months helping injured pups around our coast.

Now they are trying to raise £30,000 for a purpose-built facility, that will have double the current capacity.

The group is hoping it will be built in the mid-Cornwall, in time for the next rescue season.

You can find the Crowdfunder campaign here.

"The aim is to, hopefully, have it built over the summer and then it'll be open in time for the next seal rescue season. When they're giving birth to their pups around late-August/September is when we usually start to get our call-outs coming in.

"The new hospital will have ten pens in it altogether for seal pups. We'll have a prep area and food storage. We'll also have an office for out vet to work from. Also, very excitingly, a classroom that we can use for training and education".

Dan Jarvis, British Divers Marine Life Rescue

You can read more about why Cornwall needs a new seal hospital here.

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