Salamander in RSPCA rescue... is a toy
A terrified woman called the RSPCA after spotting what she though was a salamander on her apartment balcony – only to be told the suspect amphibian was a soft toy.
Inspector Paul Seddon, who was sent to the address in Wolverhampton was intrigued to hear of the escaped creature which is typically found in more tropical climes.
On arrival at the flat in Goring Road, Bilston, he found the female occupant in a state of fear and alarm, and refusing to go anywhere near the Juliet balcony in her second-floor apartment.
Inspector Seddon said: “I went over to the balcony and when I looked through the window I could see the salamander - and could see it was a soft toy complete with label.
“So instead of getting any equipment out to capture the creature, as I expected - I borrowed a brush to knock it off on to the ground.
"The woman seemed shocked to find out it was only a toy but relieved at the same time and was very apologetic.
“She called us with good intentions and these things sometimes happen.”
The veteran RSPCA inspector said he had been sent to a number of jobs in his career which turned out not as expected.
He said: "I remember one job when I was called to rescue a bat - but it turned out to be a moth.
“I also got called to a trapped seagull in a hedge which turned out to be a carrier bag.
"Then on one occasion I was called out to a field to try and locate an injured Friesian cow but couldn’t find it.
"The following day the man who reported it said he had been for a second look and it was in fact an old white bath in a field and the black marks were where the enamel had fallen off."
The leading animal charity receives one call every 27 seconds from animal-lovers concerned for a pet or wild animal – and it turns out the West Midlands is not the only region where callers occasionally get it wrong.
Elsewhere in the country, officers have been called to a lizard which turned out to be a sock, a horse tied to a trailer by its legs which was actually plastic, a heron with a broken leg which on closer inspection was found to be a garden ornament and to four sheep tangled in brambles which turned out to be a bunch of balloons stuck in a hedge.
