A PET owner has blasted careless fishermen after two of his dogs were rushed to vets after swallowing discarded fishing equipment within two days.

In the more serious incident, Graham Nash’s 12-month-old American Bulldog puppy, Molly, needed an emergency life-saving operation to remove a fishing trace that she swallowed while on the lead along Poole’s Holes Bay Road.

“I obviously cannot walk my dogs again in this area until these fishermen leave for the summer,” said Mr Nash, of Green Road, Poole.

“I used to be a bit of a fisherman myself, but along Holes Bay the area is left in a real mess – it is very frustrating”

Molly was rushed to a nearby vet after swallowing the barbed trace on Tuesday morning.

Two days earlier one of Mr Nash’s other dogs, his two-year-old Pointer/ Staffy cross called Gizzy, swallowed a discarded fish hook.

“He yelped in pain,” said Mr Nash. “He had picked up a fishing hook that got lodged in the side of his mouth and I rushed him to the vets where they sedated him and removed the hook immediately.”

Both procedures left Mr Nash, who runs his own Poole-based television aerial company, with a £1,070 bill.

Mr Nash said: “At this time of year Holes Bay Road is popular with the fishermen looking for flounders and we often stop and chat with these fishermen and the dogs have a bit of a fuss.

“I explain that I keep the dogs on a lead in that area because of a few of the less considerate fishermen who leave a lot of rubbish lying around that my dogs like to investigate.

“Is it right that their lack of consideration should prevent me and other dog walkers from exercising our dogs in what used to be a quiet safe area?

“There are swans and other wildlife in this area. What sort of damage is being done by these idiots that we don’t know about?”