RSPCA Wackiest Rescues: charity reveals strangest rescues during 2022 including a Scottish seal in Bristol pub

A seal walks into a bar - not the start of a joke but one of the strangest rescue missions for RSPCA Bristol during 2022.

The animal welfare charity has shared 59 of its oddest callouts from 2022 as it looks to continue its hard work in the new year. At the top of the list of rescues was a seal which had waddled into the Old Lock and Weir pub, in Hanham Mills, at the very start of 2022.

Stunned staff spotted the underweight animal in their courtyard behind a stack of beer barrels and, after further inspection, found a tag stating that the marine mammal had travelled from Scottish waters. The animal had embarked on a 300-mile journey.

Wildlife supervisor Paul Oaten said: “The River Avon runs from the coast all the way along through Keynsham where the pub is situated at the water’s edge, so it’s likely he found his way there swimming upstream from the coast.”

In a Facebook post, bar staff confirmed that the seal was named Neoprene after being tagged in Scotland in June 2021.

It read: “We had an unusual yet very special visitor at the weekend. A big thank you to the RSPCA & THE BRITISH DIVERS MARINE LIFE RESCUE CENTRE who later identified this little pup known to them as Neoprene, he was tagged in Scotland on June 21 and managed to travel all the way to the pub’s front door. Now being cared for at RSPCA WEST HATCH as he was severely underweight, soon to be released back to the sea.”

Throughout the year, the RSPCA has received nearly 300,000 reports of trapped animals - one of the charity’s busiest ever years. Another Bristol-based rescue featured a fox now on the road to recovery after becoming tow-tally stuck in the connection wires of a livestock trailer in Bristol.

Another notable rescue from around the UK took place on July 31 when shocked locals contacted the RSPCA after spotting a 5ft-long boa constrictor slithering outside a McDonald’s in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.