A dog that fell over a 30-metre cliff in Co Waterford has been rescued by Dunmore East RNLI.
The Dunmore East RNLI lifeboat launched yesterday, at the request of the Irish Coast Guard, to locate the dog who had fallen over the cliff near Portally Cove.
Eight minutes after launch, the lifeboat crew spotted the dog on a ledge at the bottom of the cliff.
Two of the volunteer crew launched the lifeboat’s small XP boat.
They made their way to the base of the cliff where one of the crew was able to climb onto the rocks to rescue ‘Ellie' the dog.
Ellie, a little Bichon Frise, was unharmed after her ordeal and was brought back to Dunmore East harbour where she was happily reunited with her family.
Roy Abrahamsson, Dunmore East RNLI Coxswain, said: "Weather conditions were good at the time and our volunteer crew did a great job in rescuing little Ellie.
"Our concern with incidents like this is that dog owners may try to get down the cliff after the dog while endangering themselves.
"Thankfully this was not the case this time, the owners did the right thing in calling for help."
Crew member Neville Murphy said Ellie had decided to chase a butterfly and "ended up going straight over the edge of a cliff".
He continued: "Our crew members, David and Luca, went into the shoreline into the shallow water near the rocks.
"And there she was, little Ellie, and she just curled up in a ball shivering with the cold.
"We think she actually went into the water, which probably, you know, saved her life and she managed to get up on the rocks so fair play to her.
"The minute Luca got a hold of her on the cliff … the tail started wagging straight away, you know, a really happy story."
