A SLEIGHTS man has complained to police after they didn't attend to rescue a deer which had broken its leg on the beach at Robin Hood's Bay.
Michael Styles says he was prompted to contact the Whitby Gazette following a recent story about a duck being savaged by dogs and the failure of the police to respond to a call of assistance from onlookers.
Mr Styles of Fouracre Drive was fossil h
unting when he spotted the injured deer which he thought had fallen down the cliff at Ness Point.
He called the police's control room at 10.15am to tell them that due to the incoming tide the situation would have to be dealt with urgently before noon to reach the injured animal.
Mr Styles then waited at the top of Bay Bank for police to arrive to escort whoever attended to the location of the deer.
But by noon no-one had come and he left the animal as it was impossible to reach it and it would be impossible to go down later as it would be 8pm before the tide would clear the base of the cliff, by which time it would be dark.
He said: “The following morning I searched the beach to try and locate the injured animal without success. I can only assume it was either washed away and drowned or it had managed to hobble away during the night to die a lingering death some time later.
“We most definitely have a police force which does not care for dumb animals in distress.”
Insp Dave Barf of Whitby Police said when the incident was reported on Friday 21 March it was passed to the RSPCA to deal with.
He said if they had been in a position to attend the control room would probably have dispatched a unit to Robin Hood’s Bay although there was not a great deal they could have done other than calling out a vet.
“We were obviously tied up with other things at the time,” he said. “It comes down to prioritisation.”
Spokeswoman for the RSPCA, Leanne Goacher said: “Unfortunately we can’t confirm whether or not the call was passed to us.
“As a charity our inspectors and animal collection officers are working to maximum capacity. We always do our best to reach animals that are suffering and in distress as soon as we can.”
Anyone who wants to report an emergency involving an animal should call the RSPCA on their manned 24 hour phone line on (0300) 1234999.
The full article contains 430 words and appears in Whitby Gazette Friday newspaper.
