Saturday, December 29, 2007

The RSPCA callers who are barking mad

The RSPCA answers more than a million queries every year … but it seems that many callers simply have bats in the belfry. Most of the telephone calls involve reports of cruelty or requests for help. But some have raised a few eyebrows.

The animal charity's national control centre was amused when one caller asked: "Can you come and get a fly off a web?" Any amusement turned to bewilderment when the centre was told: "My fish has lost its balance. It's depressed."

And it must have been difficult to know what to say when a person claimed: "There is a frog in my pond that has swallowed a golf ball."

Perhaps the caller didn't intend to phone the RSPCA when he claimed that he was dressed as a dog and his girlfriend was beating him so he wanted to log a complaint against her.

The call centre could only agree when one person rang to say: "I want to cancel the call - the pig has flown off."

Jo Barr, an RSPCA spokesman, said some callers were genuinely deceived. One person phoned to report an injured dog in a park. She said: "On arrival it was found to be a broken umbrella."

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