Children in tears at Bexhill park as dog chases duckling

Val Ferguson was walking in Egerton Park with her 12-year-old grandson, daughter and son on Monday (May 27) when she saw a family enter the park with three Spaniels off their leads.

She said her grandson and daughter had just exited a boat on the lake when one of the dogs jumped in and chased a family of ducks.

Val said: “We had just started walking around when we heard one of the women calling out at her dog.

“That’s when we noticed a dog had jumped into the boating lake and was chasing the ducks in there. The family had two others dogs which were off their leads as well.

“There were people on the other side of the lake and they were absolutely horrified. The dog just wasn’t listening to its owner.

“One of the ducklings got separated from its parents and started going the other way. Everyone was so upset. There were lots of children because it was half term and they were all crying. It really upset my grandson.”

Val said the owners managed to get their dog out of the water but not before the duckling was out of sight.

She praised the owners for doing all they could to stop their dog but said people need to take notice of the signs and make sure their dogs are on leads.

She added: “There are notices as soon as you walk into the park telling you to leave your dog on a lead.

“I’m not entirely sure who polices it or if there are any rangers but dogs must be kept on leads.

“To be fair, the people whose dog caused the incident were trying to reunite the duckling with its family but this incident was caused by people not taking notice of the signs.”

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