Express & Echo (Exeter), November 10, 2004
I'm All Right Jack!
An Exeter dog owner has praised rescuers for saving her trapped Jack Russell terrier which plunged over 200ft cliffs in Devon. "My dog Jethro is lucky to be alive," said 55-year-old Amelie Stuart.
The two-year-old dog was chasing birds when it fell 30ft over the edge of cliffs between Sandy Bay and Orcombe Point at Exmouth at the weekend.
Jethro landed on a rocky ledge and luckily escaped unhurt just after 9am on Saturday.
Exmouth coastguards responded with their cliff rescue team which lowered a man on the end of a rope to snatch the stranded dog to safety, using a net.
The dog was reunited with its owner about an hour later when it was lifted to the top of the cliff.
German-born Mrs Stuart, of Pennsylvania, Exeter, said: "I was so frightened that Jethro had plunged to his death. He was chasing birds as we walked back from Sandy Bay to Exmouth when he went over the cliff.
"Luckily he landed on a ledge 30ft from the top. Had it not been there he would have fallen 200ft onto the beach below.
"I ran down to Sandy Bay beach and looked up to see Jethro barking on the ledge above me.
"I called for police help using my mobile phone and they then contacted the coastguards who turned up very quickly.
"I cannot praise them enough. All the time I was mindful that my dog would come off the ledge.
"There was another lady with her dogs on the beach and she tried to console and comfort me." Mrs Stuart said she realised now that Jethro should have been on a lead because of the dangers of falling over cliffs along this section of the South West coastal path.
"I will make sure that Jethro is kept on a lead when I walk across the cliffs in the future," she said.
A coastguard spokesman said rescue teams were trained specially to deal with incidents like this.
And he renewed warnings about the dangers of wandering too close to the edge in an area where cliffs have collapsed onto beaches.
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