The Daily Beast - Orphaned Seals - January 13, 2012

 

Storms that have lashed the Dutch coast this year have created a wave of orphaned baby seals, some so young their umbilical cords are still attached, wrenched from their mothers and washed up on beaches and dikes. An existing Pieterburen seal rehabilitation and research center (SRRC) near the northern city of Groningen has been so inundated with pups and older seals in recent weeks it has erected a temporary tent to house them while they are nurtured back to health before being returned to the wild.

 

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

A volunteer feeds a seal a herring at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2012.

 

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

A volunteer, right, puts medicaments inside herring to be fed to seals at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2012.

 

AFP PHOTO/ ANP CATRINUS VAN DER VEEN

The seal sanctuary in Pieterburen,  Netherlands on January 12, is looking after seals weakened by last week's storm. Currently there are about 360 of them. There is normally just room for about 80 animals, so a tent containing bathtubs and small swimming pools was placed on the premises.

 

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

Three seals in a tank wait to be fed at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2012.

 

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

A volunteer feeds a seal a herring at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2012.

 

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

Seals swim and rest in a tank at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2012.

 

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

Two seals swim in a tank at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2012.