Dad suffers heart attack after trying to rescue his two dogs who died in ‘toxic hole’
A PET owner had a heart attack a day after his two beloved dogs fell into a “toxic” hole and died.
Ian Baird, 50, was struggling to breathe following a failed rescue as pooches Leon and Wispa vanished into the tiny gap in wasteland during a walk.
The cabbie watched pregnant Wispa “shudder” and die “within 20 seconds” despite getting his head and shoulders into the space to grab the Patterdale terrier/Jack Russell cross.
He was able to free himself after the horror in Plains, Lanarkshire, on Wednesday but then collapsed at hospital the next day.
Ex-wife Kay Baird said: “Ian got stuck and started to panic, he got a bit of a fright.
“Once he managed to get out he just lay there and said he couldn’t catch a breath. It was really quickly that he started to feel unwell.
“Wispa died in less than 20 seconds, it wasn’t a matter of minutes, it was seconds. It’s really worrying.”
She added: “They’re small dogs so they go down holes like that all the time, that’s what makes it weird that they died so quickly.
“I’m not sure what it could be, but it must be something or it’s just a very strange coincidence.”
Dad-of-one Ian is recovering after having stents inserted at Monklands Hospital but was left “traumatised”. He covered the hole with dirt before placing a makeshift cross.
Cops deployed gas engineers and a helicopter to the land — a former opencast mining site — owned by potato firm Albert Bartlett.
But they found no risk to the public and the hole has been covered and fenced off. The bodies of Wispa and Patterdale terrier Leon were recovered.
A police spokesman said: “We were called after a man reported dogs failed to come up from a hole they had gone down.
“He believes the dogs were overcome with fumes from the hole. Officers were assisted by the force helicopter, Coal Authority and Scottish Gas Networks in their search.
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“We have located the hole where the dogs had gone and after conducting tests no harmful gases or toxins were found.
“It was a very small hole in a very big expanse of land. There is no danger or threat to the public.”
An Albert Bartlett spokesman added: “Mr Baird contacted us to advise his dogs had fallen on our land and couldn’t be rescued.
“We are not aware of anything on the land that would cause concern.”
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