Posted on 11/27/2010 3:29:50 PM PST by decimon
A man has died after jumping into an icy river in Lancashire in an attempt to save his pet springer spaniel.
The 49-year-old man plunged into the River Lune at Halton but got into difficulties himself and died in hospital after being rescued.
Coastguard rescue teams, an RAF rescue helicopter, an inshore lifeboat and hovercraft and fire service water rescue experts were all called out.
Liverpool Coastguards urged people to call in experts to rescue animals.
A member of the public raised the alarm at about 1410 GMT, reporting that the man was in the water near the weir of the river in Halton.
The man, who was from Halton, was recovered by the rescue teams at about 1500 GMT and taken to Lancaster Hospital but was pronounced dead there later.
The dog survived and is being looked after by the man's family.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Very sad. I would like to say that under no circumstances would I jump into a body of water to save one of my dogs but I would be lying.
I agree with your comment.
Tragic.
Though most dogs can swim better than the majority of their owners.
I actually did jump in to save my dog, and I nearly didn’t make it. In defense of my own stupidity, I’m a very strong swimmer and couldn’t imagine that swimming in an ordinary pond in August could be so dangerous. It was.
I would’nt even blink if it was my boy in the water.
When my Cairn Terrier was about six months old, he jumped into a pond and started swimming after some geese. The pond wasn’t one of those “nice looking ponds” either. It had green slime and was know to have some mean snapping turtles. When the puppy started to have second thoughts, I found myself swimming in this green sludge. I can’t say I spent much time evaluating the idiocy of this stunt. He was saved, I was saved... although we both stunk to high heaven. I guess it is a lesson learned.
I remember something similar to this happening in Lake Michigan when I was a teen. A family was out on the pier in Benton Harbor/St. Joe watching the waves from an approaching storm. A wave swept their dog off the pier, and the guy went in after it. The dog made it back safely. His owner drowned.
ping
Stupid is as stupid does.
Dogs are very nice. Buy a new one.
Me not dying is one of them.
/johnny
Indeed. If my dog would drown and I’d done nothing to save him, I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself.
Yep, especially when I know that my dog would sacrifice himself for me without thinking twice.
As the saying goes: I wish I could be half the man my dog thinks I am.
While we were walking in the woods one summer day, my young hound pulled the leash out of my hand and ran off after deer. When I found him he was in the middle of a pond with the leash tangled in something. He had clearly chased some beavers into the pond and they were having fun with him, swimming around him and laughing, but he was exhausted and close to drowning now. I didn’t hesitate to jump in. I swam out through the muck and towed him back to shore in the same way I’d been taught to rescue children.
But weeks of 100-degree temperatures had made the water very hot, as hot as bathwater, and it was choked with mud and slime. As I said I ordinarily would have no trouble swimming a mile, much less across this little pond, but this nearly got me. Halfway back, my heart and lungs started to give out. There were a few minutes when I was sure we were not going to make it, and I was really kicking myself.
So we were resting on the bank of the pond, sobbing with exhaustion, hardly alive. And then one of the beavers swam past, laughing, and slapped its tail at the dog. Instantly he threw himself at the water again. I grabbed his leash and told him, “If you go back in there again, you’re on your own, buddy!”
In any case, I feel enormously sorry for the poor man who died in the river, and for his grieving family. So sad. But who among us ever really thinks we could die by doing that? Who could stand by and watch his dog drown? He surely didn’t think he was going to die, and until the last moments was probably as surprised and dismayed as I was.
I would never do so either unless it was Peanut or Pooper or Pom Pom or Mojo or TrubleMaker or Pitstop.
I remember something similar that happened in Massachusetts about ten years ago. A man was walking his doggie near the Mystic River in Medford, when it ran out on the ice and fell through. The man tried to save the dog and drowned, although the dog survived. Sad.
I think someone posted a similar story here and not that long ago.
I would have to try to save my boy too. I also believe that he’d do it for me.
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