Heartbreak after dog swallows hook at Chapel St Leonards

Sally Douglas said she was walking her two dogs - Cadbury and Crunchie - on the beach at Chapel Point on Tuesday afternoon when she noticed something was wrong.

“I could see Cadbury was eating something but he was opening his mouth too wide when he was chewing.

“I opened his mouth and could see some fishing line and when I pulled it out came a hook.

“He was still gagging though so I knew something else was still down there, so I got both dogs off the beach and in the car and we were straight down to the vets at Chapel.

“They asked me to take him to the vets at Spilsby where there was an xray machine and they confirmed there was another hook.”

Sally said she left Cadbury with the vet as she had to take her partner Sandra to Lincoln Hospital for radiotherapy treatment for cancer.

“We kept saying ‘no news is good news’ but later we heard Cadbury had been transferred to the vet hospital at Market Rasen but could not be helped because the hook had compromised his windpipe,” she said.

“They said the kindest thing to do was to put him down while he was still anaesthetised .

“We are devastated. Cadbury was a labrador/cocker cross and would have been seven in December. He was such a character but I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye.”

Sally said they often pick up litter from the beach. “I know sometimes fishing lines break but this was on dry sand. It was just discarded stuff.

“It’s only a few weeks ago that I retrieved a plastic bag from Cadbury’s through because he was trying to eat the bait inside it. I’ve even know friends who have dogs take lines and hooks and dump them at the council office.

“Something needs to be done.”

Christine Newton, clerk to Chapel Parish Council, said, unfortunately, there was very little they could do to stop this happening. “I would like to point out that some of these hooks and lines can be washed up by the sea,” she said. Our community warden is aware of this incident and visits the area on a regular basis he will take every opportunity of speaking to the fishermen.”