Story By: Maja Mishevksa, Sub Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

CEN/GRAM Trujillo

These dehydrated and starving penguins have been rescued from a home where they were attacked by dogs and being kept as pets.

The penguins were rescued from a house located in the town of Chao, in the province of Viru, in the western Peruvian region of La Libertad.

The penguins, which were named Skipper and Kowalski after the characters from the film Madagascar, were reportedly found starving and dehydrated.

Reports state they had been attacked by dogs and they were taken to the Rescue Group of Marine Animals located in the town of Huanchaco, in Trujillo.

Selene Gomez, who is in charge of the group’s rehabilitation programme, said the penguins, which are around two years old, may have been caught when they left the sea because of a change in currents.

She said that as they had been treated as pets they cannot be returned to the wild as they will have lost the ability to hunt for food.

She said: “They are treated like pets, they are humanised and they cannot go back to their natural habitat because they would not know how to defend themselves and could become prey for seals.”

Gomez added that the group had contacted the Forestal and Wild Fauna Service and the regional Agriculture Department of La Libertad, who the group say should be looking after the animals, but they say they have had no response.

She said: “They eat fresh fish, mackerel, pompano and anchovy. We need help for the food, as we do not have enough resources”

The group do not know how long the penguins were kept as pets and therefore they do not know if they will be able to interact with other animals or hunt.

A spokesperson of the rescue group told Central European News (CEN) that “those penguins are not available to be released, not only for the fact of having been in contact with human beings and pet animals, but also they are animals which are used to people and could also have dangerous diseases for the groups of wild penguins.

“We are asking the authorities to transfer those animals to a definitive centre as soon as possible as we do have neither the facilities nor the resources to take them for so long.”

The penguins will undergo x-rays to check on their health.

It is unclear if the unnamed family who were keeping the penguins have been arrested.

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