THE owners of a puppy who passed away just hours after a walk at Anton Lakes have said that a TVBC statement suggesting ‘no concerns’ with the water is sending ‘the wrong message’.

As previously reported, Jordan Shearman and Hannah Washington, from Augusta park, took their one-year-old cocker spaniel Roo on a walk at the Andover beauty spot on April 30.

However, the afternoon of play ended in disaster, as Roo was rushed to the vets and died shortly afterwards, from suspected exposure to blue green algae or other poisonous substance.

Test Valley Borough Council jumped straight into action, and warned other dog owners to keep their pets out of the water while water samples were taken.

READ MORE: Andover couple whose puppy died just hours after walk at Anton Lakes send warning to dog owners

Following this, it was confirmed that no concerning levels of blue green algae exist in Anton lakes.

Posting to Facebook on Friday (May 13), TVBC leader Cllr Phil North said: “Last week, we arranged for the water at Anton Lakes to be tested by an independent laboratory after we received a sad report of a dog passing away following a visit to the nature reserve.

“We received the results back today which show that there are extremely low levels of blue-green algae in the water. Twenty times lower than the guidance level for issuing warnings of a potential risk. After sharing the results with the Environment Agency, we can confirm that they have no concerns.”

However, reacting to the news, Jordan, 24, told the Advertiser he and Hannah, 23, are “not best pleased” with the outcome.

He said: “I don’t truly believe that the statement emits the best message. Blue green algae levels can vary greatly, and very quickly, and so although there are low levels now, a week earlier when Roo was playing in this water, there could have been toxic levels and the tests performed have discovered the remnants of what is left.

“The current message rules out any chance that blue green algae took our dog’s life, when in reality it more than likely did, and therefore to not even include that possibility in the statement is not only insulting to us, but lacks responsibility for all the other dog owners who walk at Anton Lakes.”

Jordan added that the advice from the Kennel Club, linked to by Cllr North in his statement, suggests that dog owners should always avoid any water which is known to contain blue green algae.

“How can the KC website tell people to avoid any water that contains any level of of this algae, but the council state that low level of it is absolutely fine, especially considering a dog literally died of blue green algae symptoms two hours after being in the lake! Utter madness,” he said.

“We are still trying to get the right message out to people: avoid the lake!”

Cllr North added: “As an owner of a Cocker Spaniel myself, my thoughts remain with the owners of Roo, who we have liaised with today.”

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