A gull that was saved by a ‘soggy hero’ after he swam into the middle of a lake to free it from a discarded fishing line was nursed back to health at a Hastings rescue centre.
THE RSPCA received its highest number of call-outs for animals trapped in litter across East and West Sussex last year out of anywhere else in England, outside London. The animal welfare charity handled a total of 220 incidents involving animals and birds affected by litter across the county, with 133 calls in East Sussex and 87 in West Sussex. The call-outs were among 3,874 incidents across England and Wales in 2020. As well as everyday rubbish, the RSPCA also sees many animals arriving into its care with terrible injuries caused by angling litter such as discarded fishing line and hooks to plastic netting. Nearly 40 per cent (1,510) of all litter-related calls to the RSPCA last year were about animals that had specifically become caught in fishing litter.