DOG walkers are being urged to stay vigilant after a dog was trapped in a snare placed at Warwick Racecourse.
Owner Janet Davies and her son David took Border Collie Biddy on her daily walk around the course just minutes from their Forbes estate home.
But the afternoon stroll took a turn for the worse, when four-year-old Biddy became entangled in a wire snare which had been staked in the ground near the brook.
School support worker Janet told the Observer: “We heard a yelp and went running to see what had happened.
“She had her leg caught in what we thought was fishing wire, and then we realised it was a snare, the type used to catch rabbits.
“It took us ten minutes to get it off her, although it seemed much longer. I was trying so hard to keep her still and I accidentally hurt her neck when I was trying to pin her down.
“When we were trying to prise the snare off I got my finger caught in it too. The more Biddy struggled the tighter and tighter it got. It was terrifying.”
Luckily David had just finished work at nearby Sainsburys and had a box cutter in his pocket which he used to to slice through the string holding the stake and free the stricken pooch.
Janet said: “We were all really shaken, including Biddy.
“How anyone can set a trap like that horrifies me. If there hadn’t been the two of us there then I don’t know what would have happened.
“When I walk now we try to avoid going near the brook and I keep Biddy much closer to me.”
And vet Paula Bailey from Emscote Vets in the town was also shocked at the discovery of the trap just over a week ago.
She treated Biddy after her ordeal, which luckily saw her escape relatively unscathed.
Paula said: “In my 20 years as a vet I have never seen anything like this.
“Biddy was very lucky there were two people there and luckily they managed to get it off her before it tightened too much – but it might have been a very different story if she wasn’t being walked by them both.
“I am urging people to please been vigilant and keep a close eye on your dogs because we don’t know that this is the only one.”
And racecourse general manager Huw Williams has already launched an investigation.
He said: “We have all been shocked and dismayed to hear of this incident and will work with our landlord and the necessary authorities to ensure that this does not happen again.”
