Dunmore East RNLI’s lifeboat volunteers leapt into action on the report of a dog that fell over a 30m cliff near the Co Wexford town yesterday afternoon (Thursday 19 August).
The inshore lifeboat was launched at 2pm at the request of the Irish Coast Guard to locate the little pooch, which had gone over the cliff edge a half a mile to the east of Portally Cove.
Eight minutes later the lifeboat arrived on scene and signed the dog on a ledge at the bottom of the cliff.
Two crew launched the lifeboat’s XP boat and made their way to the cliff base, where one of them was able to climb onto the rocks and rescue Ellie the dog.
Thankfully Ellie was unharmed after her ordeal, and was swiftly brought back to Dunmore East Harbour where she was happily reunited with her family.
Roy Abrahamsson, Dunmore East RNLI coxswain, said: “Weather conditions were good at the time and our volunteer crew did a great job in rescuing little Ellie.
“Our concern with incidents like this is that dog owners may try to get down the cliff after the dog while endangering themselves. Thankfully this was not the case this time; the owners did the right thing in calling for help.”
Yesterday’s callout marks one of the last in Dunmore East for the Trent class lifeboat Elizabeth and Ronald, which is set to be replaced by a new €2.4 million Shannon class vessel next month. Afloat.ie has more on that story HERE.
