Dog stuck for four days after rabbit chase

A border terrier has been rescued after four days stuck in a badger sett, and is now recovering following vet treatment.

The two-year-old dog named Boh was walking with three other dogs and their owner, a farmer from Worcestershire, when it chased a rabbit into a tunnel.

The farmer said he expected the dog to come home on its own, but after a four-day search he realised Boh must have got trapped in one of the area's badger setts.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service were contacted and, using an acoustic listening probe, the team found the sound of distressed heavy breathing, rather than simply a badger, down one of the setts.

Permission was granted by the RSPCA and English Heritage to disturb the 10 feet long tunnel, four feet below the ground, and the fire and rescue service used a snake eye camera to locate Boh.

"It would seem that the dog... had become trapped in the sett with the rabbit wedged in its mouth," said Phil Ball, a crew commander for the service. "This had made it impossible for the dog to breathe through its mouth and so had been struggling to breathe through its nose, hence the laboured breathing we could hear with our detection equipment."

Boh received immediate medical attention once he was freed, and a vet administered fluids and antibiotics to deal with an eye infection. He was both hungry and dehydrated, but is now recovering from the ordeal.