East Sussex Coastguard Rescues Labradoodle

Coastguard Rescue Teams from Hastings and Rye Bay have been working to rescue a Labradoodle called Pepper that slipped over the cliffs at Ecclesbourne Glen near Hastings yesterday afternoon at just before 3 p.m.

The call was passed to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre at Dover (MRCC) by Sussex Police. The MRCC sent Hastings Coastguard Rescue Team to the scene and a cliff man spotted Pepper on a very narrow ridge. The Hastings team then spent the next four hours trying to persuade Pepper to come close enough to them to be rescued but she refused. The Hastings team were joined by the Rye Coastguard Rescue team who approached from the opposite end of the ridge and tried to tempt her with dog treats and meat snacks but Pepper wouldn’t be persuaded to come to them. At 11 p.m. last night, in total darkness, the teams had to give up for the night.

The teams returned to the scene this morning and finally at just before five thirty this evening managed to persuade Pepper to allow herself to be rescued by the cliff man.

Pepper was unhurt but thirsty and exhausted. Delighted to be reunited, her owner John from London said: “I never thought that she would run through the gorse and no idea that there was a sheer cliff on the other side of it. I will never again walk Pepper off the lead near a cliff and would strongly advise other dog owners to learn from our experience and always, always keep your dog on a lead near cliffs.”