Dog with rock tied to her neck pulled from River Thames at Wargrave 'might have been pregnant'

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing

The RSPCA has launched an investigation after a dog was pulled from the River Thames in Berkshire with a rock tied to her neck.

A member of the public spotted the dog’s body floating in the river near their house on Ferry Lane in Wargrave on Tuesday 25 July.RSPCA animal rescue officer Holly Walker attended the scene and helped pull the dog’s body from the river.

She said: “This was an extremely distressing find.

"The poor dog appears to have been cruelly and deliberately drowned with a rock tied around her neck. We don’t know if she was dead before being thrown in the water but the circumstances with the rock tied to her make it suspicious.

“Looking at the decomposition of her body, she doesn’t appear to have been there for very long. Her front feet may also have been bound up as they were tangled in ropes, though we aren’t sure if that happened in the river.

“She was very bloated and there is a chance she may have been pregnant.

“She was not microchipped, so we’d really like the public to help us identify this dog and find the person who did this.

"It’s an unspeakable act of cruelty and I hate to think how this poor pet suffered in the final moments of her life.

“This case highlights why the RSPCA has launched its Cancel Out Cruelty campaign which calls on the public to help our frontline staff investigate horrendous acts like this and raise awareness about how to stop cruelty to animals for good.”

New figures released by the charity show the number of animals killed in ‘suspicious circumstances’ increased in 2022 by 15% from by 2021 (891 in 2022, compared to 775 in 2021.

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