Pet owner's horror after dog impaled on iron rod while playing in Bromley woods

Victor Pigott said it was “touch and go” for his Labrador Barney after he suffered serious injuries to his chest while running around Marvels Wood near Charminster Road last month.

In February the 62-year-old warned Bromley Council on the website Fix My Street over the piles of fly-tipped rubbish being left in the woods.

The rubbish was quickly collected by council workers but Mr Pigott said the problem continued over the next six months.

He had let his seven-year-old dog out to have a run around when he heard Barney howl in pain.

Mr Pigott told News Shopper: “I just heard him, I heard the screams. I can’t get them out of my head.

“I was running around like a headless chicken.

“I thought he was going to die. It was so bad where it impaled him.”

The pile of rubbish which injured Barney the Labrador in Marvels Wood.

The iron rod had been sticking out of the ground at chest height when Barney ran into it, leaving him badly injured.

He was taken to an emergency vet’s for treatment, before he returned to his normal practice to undergo surgery.

When Mr Pigott ventured into the woods the next day to investigate what had caused Barney’s injuries, he said he found the pile of rubbish and the ground covered in blood.

Now just over a month later, Barney is on the mend after having his stiches removed but Mr Pigott wants to warn other pet owners before another dog is injured.

Since reporting the incident to Fix My Street again, council workers have visited to remove the dumped metal and barbed wire, but he said there is still pieces of broken glass scattered around the wood.

He said: “It was a disaster waiting to happen.

“If someone just falls on that glass you can imagine what is going to happen.”

Mr Pigott said the incident has put him off letting Barney, who he has owned for over two years, out in the woods.

“I’m just so nervous when I go out into the woods now, all I can see is danger everywhere,” he added.