Advocate rescues dog swept into Tay

An advocate in Perth came to the rescue of a pet dog that seemed set for certain death.

Laurence Kennedy saw black labrador, Tess, being swept into the River Tay while paddling in the shallows. She was being walked by owner Elaine Paul and her daughter and friend when the incident occurred.

After Tess managed to make it on to an embankment Mr Kennedy leapt over the railings to reach the dog, looking after her until the fire service arrived.

He said: “I saw her go in the water and taken off by the current. I didn’t think they were going to see her again and I thought ‘I have to walk away, I can’t watch this’, but then she got on to the embankment.

“The tide was low enough so she got on to land – an hour later and it wouldn’t have been there.

“I went down to make sure she didn’t swim off. First of all I tried to get a ladder from the hotel then I tried using one of the emergency ropes to get down.

“We tried to lift her out but she was too heavy and her collar kept coming loose.”

Ms Paul said: “We were walking along and I turned to speak to the girls and she got swept away. It was too quick for it to register. It was quite scary because she was going further down but she managed to get back to the embankment. She’s going to be on the lead for the rest of the day.

“I’m very grateful to the firemen and to Laurence.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We received a call at 2.42pm to a dog which was down an embankment in shallow water under Perth Bridge.

“We rescued it, and an adult male, using a short extension ladder.”