Dog dies after being ‘tied to fence and abandoned’ in Weeton

Blackpool pet rescue group Homeward Bound received a message late on Saturday (February, 23) night from a distressed woman who said she saw a black dog being dumped on Weeton Road.

The following day, volunteers were called to the road to investigate. Within minutes, they found the dog nearby.

It is believed that the dog, a cross between a Labrador and a Collie, had been hit by a car after slipping its lead.

Heather Hardingham, from Thornton, said she was driving down Weeton Road at around 7pm on Saturday when she saw a man get out of a car with a dog.

She said the man appeared to return to the car a short while later without the dog, before driving away.

She said: "I was on my way home from Preston, going over the motorway bridge towards Weeton Barracks and the M55, down the country lanes, and I passed a car on the bridge that had let out a man and a dog and driven off.

"This didn’t sit right so I turned around and went back. I passed the guy who had just left his black dog tied to a fence.

"I continued to go past so I could turn around and literally, one minute later, I went past where I thought the dog was and saw the man getting in a car without the dog.

"I drove slowly and got his registration plate. I stopped my car and only found the dogs brown leather collar and red lead attached to the fence.

"Thinking the dog had slipped its collar I searched for it, but couldn’t find it anywhere.

"Telling you I’m devastated is an understatement. I’ve not stopped crying since we found out the poor dog has died."

Heather said she contacted Homeward Bound pet rescue for help and reported the incident to police.

Police confirmed that they had received reports of a dog being found dead at noon on Sunday, February 24 .

Homeward Bound volunteer Wendy Mulela said: “A person said they had seen a Labrador, and they didn’t know if it was alive.

“One of our volunteers went and had a look, and unfortunately the dog was dead, but it was still floppy so we don’t think it had been dead very long.

“It appears to me that some person or people have abandoned this dog in the night down this lane, and it has become stressed and slipped its collar, and in its stressed state it has run onto the road and got run over and sadly died.

“There’s no need for people to be doing that. It’s very, very tragic.”

She said the case had been passed to the RSPCA, and that a post-mortem would be carried out on the dog, which has been called Thunder.An RSPCA spokesman said: “It’s incredibly sad to hear that this poor dog was killed after being cruelly abandoned in Weeton over the weekend.

If anyone has any information about where this dog came from or what happened we’d encourage them to get in touch."

You contact RSPCA on on 0300 1234 999.