A PERSHORE dog owner is furious with anglers who left two fish hooks on a public riverbank which her dog later swallowed.

Three major operations and £2,000 later Sarah Williamson, from Broad Street, is demanding answers after her weekend walk with her four-year-old son George turned into a nightmare.

"We were walking along the River Avon, by Pershore Bridge, towards the weir," explained Mrs Williamson.

"My dog went down onto the river bank and swallowed two fish hooks, the vet thought they were pike hooks because there were four hooks on each.

"There was a foot of line on each so they had been cut off and left, they must have left some bait on them because Maisy wouldn't have swallowed them otherwise.

"I could see a hook in her mouth which was dragging her tongue to one side and I could see two lines hanging from her mouth so I knew she had swallowed another one.

"I'm absolutely furious because it has been terrible for my family, we didn't know if Maisy was going to make it.

"We've paid £2,000 so far and she has to go back for another endoscopy and could need another operation.

"The money is not an issue for us because she is a much-loved pet but it might have been for a lot of people or it could have been a fox or a swan which had swallowed them and might have died a horrible death."

Maisy, a two-year-old black labrador, was taken to the Martin Carr veterinary practice in Station Road, Pershore, where she had a hook removed from her mouth.

X-rays showed the second hook quite far down the oesophagus and Maisy was transferred to The Animal Hospital in Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire, where she underwent a second, unsuccessful, operation which laster two-and-a-half-hours.

She had another operation to remove the second hook last Monday.

Nick Green, a member of the Jubilee Angling Club and co-owner of Pershore's only fishing tackle shop, said he was "surprised and upset" by the incident.

"I can say that 99 per cent of anglers are responsible people who care about what they do," he said. "I can't see any of them leaving hooks lying round like this."

But he said the fishing rights on that stretch of the Avon were owned by Birmingham Fishing Club. "The result is that although there are a lot of local anglers who know what they are doing, there are others who are not so aware of the countryside code.

"Any responsible angler would deplore this sort of behaviour."