Cape Town - Motorists on the usually busy Jakes Gerwel Drive near Bonteheuwel were greeted by the peculiar sight of a Cape Fur seal, nicknamed Santa the seal, making its way across the busy intersection in Athlone opposite the Vangate Mall, leaving a mystery about how it got so far from the ocean – at least 17km from the nearest bay.
Authorities had numerous theories: some suspected it ended up in a canal after the heavy rains and then found itself in Athlone, others thought it may have been captured and kept for a Christmas present, for pit bull baiting, or even trafficked and sold to people buying seal body parts.
The SPCA responded to the incident with the police, law enforcement and traffic services amid a road full of bemused onlookers.
The SPCA inspectors conducted a health assessment and then released it at Lagoon Beach in Milnerton where it could recover from its ordeal in peace.
Cape of Good Hope SPCA chief inspector Jaco Pieterse said they were not 100% sure where the large adult female seal had come from, but suspected she ended up in a canal with the heavy rains and then found herself in Athlone.
However, they could not rule out that someone may have tried to transport the seal to their home, and it escaped.
“We have had incidents where people pick up seal pups from the beach in an attempt to rescue them and then take them home.
“Keeping seals as pets is illegal and a permit is required. Keeping or transporting a seal without a permit bears hefty fines and jail time,” Pieterse said.
Councillor Alex Lansdowne, the chairperson of the City’s mayoral advisory committee for water quality in wetlands and waterways, said the seal would have had to migrate more than 11km up the Vygekraal River from the Salt River mouth in Paardeneiland to Athlone if it ended up in a canal, which was highly unlikely to have been the case due to numerous obstructions and conditions in this waterway.
Lansdowne said: “It is far more likely this poor seal was captured, for whatever stupid reason. I feel sorry for Santa the Seal and the people who inflicted such cruelty upon her.”
The Hout Bay Seal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, responsible for rescuing and rehabilitating injured and sick Cape Fur seals, believed it was extremely unlikely the animal got to Athlone on its own.
Operations director Kim Krynauw said: “It could have been taken off the beach and potentially used as pit bull baiting, or trafficked and sold to people purchasing seal body parts. We had a case reported up the West Coast where a person had a seal and kept the animal in a pool. The animal was later released but kept coming back, and was eventually believed to have died because it could not survive in the wild.”
Krynauw said this incident should be seriously investigated, as well as all avenues of potential animal trafficking.
“This is not something that should be looked at as a coincidence. We have had too many reports of animals being killed for their body parts. We truly believe this seal escaped from some horror and needs a voice,” Krynauw said.
The mysterious circumstances of Santa the Seal’s appearance will be further investigated by the SPCA.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za