Woman mistakenly calls in RSPCA over toy salamander
A terrified woman who called the RSPCA after spotting what she thought was a salamander in her apartment was relieved to discover it was in fact just a soft toy.
When Inspector Paul Seddon was called to reports of a salamander in Goring Road, Bilston, on Friday he was quite intrigued having never come across this kind of amphibian before during his career.
He said when he arrived at the address the woman who reported the matter was terrified of going near the Juliet balcony on the second floor of her apartment where she said she had spotted the amphibian.
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 onto 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.”
Inspector Seddon said he has been to a few jobs in his career as an RSPCA inspector which were not quite as they first seemed.
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 RSPCA receives one call every 27 seconds from animal-lovers concerned for a pet or wild animal and there are some occasions when not all calls turn out to be as they first appear.
