Cornwall beach dog dies after swallowing fish hook

A family have urged beachgoers to remove sharp objects after their dog swallowed a fish hook and died.

Norfolk terrier Mabel swallowed the baited hook when the Tatner family from Winchester, Hampshire, was on holiday on the Rame Peninsula in Cornwall.

She was taken to an animal hospital in Bristol where vets said barbs on the 2.5in (6.3cm) hook could kill her if they tried to pull it out.

Mabel suffered a ruptured artery in an operation to remove the hook.

Seven-year-old Mabel was with the family on a small cove on the Rame Peninsula when she discovered a pile of rope on the beach on 16 July.

"She was attracted to a nice piece of bait on the end of a fishing hook with barbs," said owner Helen Tatner.

"I saw the fishing line hanging out of her mouth and pulled it.

"She gave a little yelp and I realised she had swallowed the hook and the the horrendousness of the situation."

The family took Mabel to a vet in Liskeard and then to the Langford Small Animal Hospital in Bristol for an emergency operation.

"They did everything they could to save her but they couldn't bring the hook out because of the way it was embedded and the barbs on the side would cause too much damage," said Ms Tatner.

So an operation was decided upon to extract the hook from between Mabel's ribs.

"Her pulmonary artery ruptured and she started bleeding," said Ms Tatner

"They tried a transfusion but could not save her."

Her message to other beachgoers is "beware and have a look on the beach and pick up anything sharp and take it home.

"Please, please do not leave sharp objects that can cause detrimental damage to pets or children that don't have the capacity to know what's right and wrong."

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