{"id":222277,"date":"2026-01-01T20:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T20:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/222277\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T20:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T20:52:11","slug":"cornwall-raccoon-and-devon-seals-make-rspcas-top-2025-rescues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/222277\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornwall raccoon and Devon seals make RSPCA’s top 2025 rescues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EmmaEmma Jacobs\/RSPCA<\/p>\n

When RSPCA officer Abi Kemp arrived to rescue the raccoon, she saw it was very overweight<\/p>\n

An overweight raccoon from Cornwall and three seals from Devon are among those recognised in the RSPCA’s top rescues of 2025.<\/p>\n

The charity compiled the list, hoping to share “some of its most heart-warming tales” of the year.<\/p>\n

It also revealed more than 634,000 users visited the RSPCA website nationally to report a concern in the last 12 months, with 7,279 visits needed in just the days between 24 December to 29 December.<\/p>\n

The RSPCA said it wanted to showcase “how animal lovers have helped us help so many animals survive”.<\/p>\n

Back in November, the charity said it was called to the village of Gwennap, Cornwall, after members of the public had spotted an overweight raccoon<\/a> wandering the streets.<\/p>\n

When RSPCA officer Abi Kemp arrived to rescue the animal, she found it was three times the weight of a healthy raccoon at 11.2kg (2st 1lb).<\/p>\n

At the time, Ms Kemp said it was “a bit of a surprise to get a call about a raccoon”.<\/p>\n

The charity said: “Thanks to the kind members of the public, and a vet, the raccoon was safely captured and taken to RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre.<\/p>\n

“There he received the care he needed before heading off to a permeant home that could meet his need and the strict legal restriction on keeping them as pets.”<\/p>\n

Watch: Roaming racoon rescued in Cornwall<\/p>\n

Also making the list were three grey seals from Devon, who were later named Shakira, Iggy Pop and Elmer.<\/p>\n

The trio were rescued by the RSPCA and also rehabilitated at a wildlife hatch centre before they were released back into the sea in December.<\/p>\n

\"RSPCARSPCA<\/p>\n

Shakira, Iggy Pop and Elmer were given their names after they were rescued by the RSPCA<\/p>\n

\"RSPCARSPCA<\/p>\n

The trio were released back into the wild in December <\/p>\n

A grass snake was found by a member of the public in Liskeard, Cornwall, after it was caught in a glue trap.<\/p>\n

The native snake was then rescued and the remains of the glue trap removed before it was released back into the wild.<\/p>\n

\"RSPCARSPCA<\/p>\n

The trap this grass snake was described as “cruel” by the RSPCA vet who rescued it<\/p>\n

“Glue traps are cruel and indiscriminate and that’s why it’s now illegal for the public to use them,” said David Couper, the RSPCA wildlife vet who helped the snake.<\/p>\n

“When animals come into contact with the glue board, they get stuck by their feet; or, like with this snake, by their head and body,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Couper added: “If trapped animals are left unattended, they’ll die slowly from dehydration, starvation or exhaustion, which is why the RSPCA are against the sale of these traps.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Jacobs\/RSPCA When RSPCA officer Abi Kemp arrived to rescue the raccoon, she saw it was very overweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-222277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}