Anything that involves saving animals, especially dogs, is certain to make news in Britain and although the feats of one particular man in London, did not replace the current headlines relating to the recent election of a new parliament, it certainly got the fingers busy on smartphones posting on social media websites.
What happened was that this young man was walking along the pavement close to the River Thames when he spotted a dog in trouble in the water. Now we imagine that most people would have waited for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution or RNLI which was already seen coming down the Thames to come to the rescue of the “pooch”, but no, our un-named Good Samaritan dived in to the Thames to rescue the struggling dog!
One person videoed the rescue and posted it on Twitter, this shows the lifeboat crew speeding along towards the man, cold and wet by this time and clinging to the rescue chains on the embankment wall with one hand with the other clutching the grateful dog.
Tonight we worked with @MPSonthewater to rescue this dog & a member of the public who attempted to rescue the dog. pic.twitter.com/T0BhQnLyjg
— Tower RNLI (@TowerRNLI) 11 June 2017
Acting like true “Brits” the crew had arrived and naturally grab the dog first and wrap it up in nice and warm in a blanket, before helping the man onto the inflatable lifeboat. Now here comes the thing that really makes this a true British animal story, the dog is not his and has no idea who it belongs to! However, the owner must have seen the rescue from the river bank and he rushes over to thank our friend and of course the lifeboat crew. As the RNLI is a voluntary organisation not supported by government, but entirely by public donations, maybe a nice donation from the grateful dog owner towards the upkeep of the lifeboats could be forthcoming, plus a couple of pints for our gallant rescuer of course.
Twitter comments have been coming thick and fast, some praising his efforts, whilst others not, one person commented: “That was insane. He literally just ran along the pavement and just jumped straight over – without a second breath.”
One of the RNLI’s crew members praised his actions but, Mick Nield warned people against diving into rivers to save animals. The RNLI encourages anyone who sees someone in difficulty in the River Thames to call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.’
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