Weakened, sick or abandoned seals are regularly brought in at A Seal in Stellendam in Zeeland.

The goal is to put them off in the North Sea within 3 months. This happens in different phases.

The puppies entering are examined by a veterinarian. For the first 3 weeks they stay in Quarantine, they stay alone in a room and receive medicines, vitamins and fish porridge to strengthen.

After the three weeks they go to the next stage, they are allowed to strengthen in the indoor pools. Here they are back in contact with other seals. They often get medication here.

In the next step they go to the outdoor pool. Here they get food at fixed times to strengthen and grow. Not all fish they eat right away, later they 'fish' them off the bottom when they get hungry again. The fish is dead, it's not doing to feed or grow so many kilos of live fish every day.

To keep the hunting instinct, the seals play with their food, they hit them through the water to go after them.

You can also “sponsor” a bucket of fish. Then the two of you can help feed the seals. That's what my girls ( @Tess crafts and more and her sister) a lot of fun to do. They were the only ones to 'look' the seals without glass in between.

A fun experience for them !

I myself always feel a double feeling at such a shelter. Many animals are injured by humans, so you can say that humans should provide the care they need. On the other hand, I think you can leave this to nature as well (the biologist in me I think). Seals are not rare, and will then outweigh all the effort and all the money to the work they do.?

Of course there is also a nice educational side to such a shelter. There's another fun information room at A Seal where kids can do a lot and plenty of information about the seals you can find in the North Sea. That educational function adds so much to me that makes me the pointer to 'I think the care is a nice initiative.' A nice family trip in the Netherlands.

What do you think of these types of shelters??

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More information can be found on the site of A Seal at Stellendam (opens in new window)