Recently a family went on a week long holiday to New Morwenstow, North Cornwall, England. Traveling with them was Ted, their 150lb. Newfoundland who is the size of a small pony. Ted had been quite disobedient throughout the trip, and was constantly refusing to walk on his leash. The family wanting to have a good relaxed time gave in to Ted and let him run free along side of them. Little were they prepared for what happened next.

Ted in a moment of unrestricted fun ended up falling down a 150 foot fall of one of the cliff's there. Although his owner tried to stop him and yelled out a loud “No!”, Ted had only glanced back quickly, but then continued running before he fell over the edge. Initially, the family was afraid that the worst had happened, but to their surprise, Ted was sitting on a 10 foot wide ledge, just above the rocks. Luckily for him, the ledge along the cliff had broken his fall before he could hit the rocks at the bottom.

Since Ted's family quickly realized that there was no way they could reach their shaken pet, a call for help was made. While waiting for a rescue team to arrive his owner, Lee, hung over the cliff, and talked to Ted in an attempt to calm him. This is how he described that wait, " “I stayed on the edge talking to Ted. I was hanging over the edge trying to keep him calm while the children stayed on the path. I kept my balance by hanging onto clumps of Lucky Heather. It was very lucky heather because if it had given way I would have gone over too. For the first hour he did not move. He was just yelping. Blood was coming from his mouth. By the time the rescue people arrived he was on his feet. All he had was a grazed nose. It was amazing.”

The Hartland Cliff Rescue Team then arrived on scene and quickly began their mission to save Ted. All together, fourteen men were involved in making the rescue happen. The men worked hard together to set up a pulley system that would hold the weight of the dog, as well as one of the rescue workers. They then lowered one of the workers down in a bag so that he could fit Ted inside and bring him back to the top. However, Ted was not happy about this and as soon as he was put into the bag he continued to jump back out. Eventually the team had to make a stronger pulley system so that another man could go down to help with the stubborn Newfoundland.

Finally after a long three hours, Ted was reunited with his worried family. His owner described that happy moment, “I think his ego has been bruised at bit. But other than that he just has a scrape on his nose. It is remarkable and bizarre. There was nothing to stop him hurtling over. He ended up on a narrow rocky ledge about ten feet wide. If he had missed that he would have gone down onto the rocks. He is very lucky to be alive. If he were a cat he would definitely have lost a few lives.”

This is the second story this summer of such a preventable accident with a dog. If you are in an area that could pose a danger to your dog, please keep them safely restrained on their leash.