Dear Editor,

On Thursday I was walking by the riverside with my son’s puppy. She ran down the bank to three fisherman who were just baiting a hook, and being a puppy who loves her food she ate the bait, hook and line.

Luckily the young men were quick to cut the line and tell us she had swallowed the hook. We took her straight to the vet, and after an X-ray they had to open her stomach and remove the hook. It was the second similar operation they had done that week.

We had a very expensive lesson and if the fisherman had not told us she had swallowed the hook, and we had not taken her straight to the vet the outcome would have been a lot worse. A friend’s dog last year was in intensive care for several days after swallowing an abandoned hook and bait.

So please be aware, both dog walkers and fisherman.

Rosie Callinan

Ross-on-Wye