Dog owner praises rescue team for saving spaniel in Sedbury

A man has thanked rescue services for saving his spaniel after he fell halfway down a cliff.

David Trevelyan’s dog, Bracken, was with his family at their home in Sedbury, Forest of Dean, when he got lost in the lower end of their garden on Saturday.

Realising Bracken had dropped seven metres down the cliff and with the family unable to reach him, Severn Area Rescue Association (SARA) was called out to assist the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service with his rescue.

Trevelyan said his garden was “obviously not spaniel proof” and thanked the teams for being “kind and sympathetic” during the ordeal.

The dog owner said he was gardening with Bracken, a dog inherited from his father who recently died, when he realised he was no longer in the garden.

The family later did a check of the local area, when on their return they heard Bracken howling outside the garden fence.

Bracken was then found down the cliff, with the family worried he could drop a further 20 metres into the River Wye below.

Trevelyan, who works as a risk consultant and who previously worked at SARA, later called 999.

“[The rescue teams] found it highly amusing,” he said. “I am ironically a sustainability and risk consultant – but that doesn’t extend to dog fencing.”

The rescue, which had 25 people assisting in total, took just under an hour an a half.

Bracken was eventually saved by a firefighter who was lowered down the cliff to retrieve him, using a bag and harness to pull the him back up.

Trevelyan said he wanted to reassure the public Bracken was “absolutely fine” and “completely unaware” of what had happened.

“Other than the fact that he appears to have made 25 new friends,” he added.

Richard Newhouse, a volunteer at SARA, said retrieving the “adorable chocolate spaniel” was a joint operation with Seven Area Rescue and Gloucester Fire Services.

Newhouse said they often get called to rescue dogs from the Severn, but rarely to get them off cliff faces.