'Heartbreak' as charity dog kennels in Cornwall severely damaged by Storm Bert flooding

  • Dave Wardell speaks to ITV News West Country about flood damage

A former police dog handler who runs kennels in Cornwall faces a major clean-up operation after Storm Bert.

Dave Wardell, who appeared on Britain's Got Talent with his dog Finn in 2019, arrived home on Saturday to find his living room covered in water.

Dave looks after dogs at the site which is owned by the charity German Shepherd Rescue Elite.

"We had to go to the emergency vets with three dogs, and when we came back in the evening - having travelled for two hours through the storm to get care for these dogs - we came back to find the living room was flooded with three inches of water.

"We were already on a low anyway, and then we walked in here and just seeing the biggest puddle of water in your living room, where you don't expect to see a puddle of water. We were ready to give up at that point."

Mr Wardell said many items have been ruined by dirty flood water.

Dave said: "The thing is, it's dirty water. So it's runoff from the road and runoff from the fields. So everything is going to have to be thrown away.

"The carpet has got to be ripped up, the room has got to be dried out, the coverings on the walls have got to come off and be re-done, and we've lost some very dear personal items as well. There's a lot of work to be done and it's just heartbreaking."

The storm also caused damage to the outside of the building.

Dave and his team look after more than 40 German Shepherds at the site, which is owned by the charity German Shepherd Rescue Elite.

All of the animals were unharmed.

"We had nine storms last winter, which was bad, but we never had the amount of wind and rain and snow that we had this past weekend," Dave added. "It was biblical."