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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SPCA inspectors get odd callouts, but the one they had on Wednesday was so weird it sounded like a prank. It wasn’t. A female Cape fur seal was crossing the busy Jakes Gerwel Drive heading for the Vangate Mall in Athlone, Cape Town.</span>\r\n\r\n[video width=\"640\" height=\"352\" mp4=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/VIDEO-2022-12-21-11-14-01.mp4\"][/video]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Metro Police were on the scene controlling traffic and a crowd was gathering. She was soon named Santa by curious onlookers.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was it a gimmick to sell the latest fad or had it forgotten where the sea was? Do seals do Christmas shopping? </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1507023\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Don-sealshopping.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"960\" /> Santa makes a stop on the way to the mall. (Photo: Supplied)</p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1507028\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Don-sealshopping_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" /> Santa is released on a quiet beach. (Photo: Supplied)</p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps, quipped SPCA chief inspector Jaco Pieterse who rushed to the scene, it was intended to be an unusual Christmas gift for someone’s mother-in-law and dumped when its captor saw the price of fish!</span>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<strong>Visit <a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=in_article_link&utm_campaign=homepage\"><em>Daily Maverick's</em> home page</a> for more news, analysis and investigations</strong>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quite how a seal got to be there remains a mystery. Pieterse speculated it had swum into a canal and was washed further inland by strong currents. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He and Inspector Lwazi Ntungele, experienced in the ways of fur seals, acted quickly to get the animal safely into a crate before a quick health assessment. It was then taken to the nearest quiet beach, where she lolloped into the water and swam off with a wave of a flipper. Her Christmas shopping would just have to wait. </span><b>DM/OBP</b>",
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Santa makes a stop on the way to the mall. (Photo: Supplied)
Santa is released on a quiet beach. (Photo: Supplied)