MORE than 40 dangerous soft toys were seized from an Abergavenny street trader yesterday by Monmouth-shire Trading Standards officers.
The battery-operated toy mice, rabbits, dogs and kittens have been denounced as "unsafe" and a "potential choking hazard".
The toys have a hard plastic fur-covered body with a battery case in the stomach. The tail covers are easily pulled off revealing a six-inch sharp metal rod underneath, and the plastic eyes come out too easily.
Head of Trading Standards Phil Glanville (pictured) said: "These toys can cause all sorts of problems for small children, the eyes are pulled out without too much difficulty, as can the fish in the kittens' mouths. The head also moves and can trap small fingers but the most dangerous feature is the curved, sharp metal rod in the tail which could easily take out a child's eye."
County Councillor Pam Birchall, cabinet member for public protection, said: "If anyone has already bought one of these toys our advice is that they should not be given to children but should be safely destroyed."
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