Family dog dies on ferry as pets are forced to stay in hot cars

Ferry company P&O is reviewing its policies after a family’s pug died after overheating on a crossing because the dog was not allowed out of the car.

Kirsty and Deane Wallace were travelling from Calais to Dover with their sons and three dogs. They left their pets with some water in the undivided rear of their Vauxhall Zafira because of the ship’s rules which state that passengers cannot stay in their cars with pets – but cannot take them out of the vehicles either.

The family returned to the car when the ferry arrived at Dover after the four-and-a-half-hour crossing on July 18 to find their four-year-old pug, Merlin, unconscious.

Mr Wallace, a 34-year-old Army sergeant, gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while sons Dillon, 12, Ben, 11 and Blake, 10, looked on in horror. Mrs Wallace, 31, said: “The kids are devastated. On the ferry Blake came to me and said he found more water and if we could try again. It’s heartbreaking.

“My husband is in pieces because he thinks he should have kept going with resuscitation. We put three healthy, hydrated dogs on the ferry and we came back to this nightmare.” Mrs Wallace, of Brookwood, Surrey, who has two other dogs, a beagle called Trixie and another pug called Arthur, spoke of the moment they discovered that Merlin had collapsed.

She said: “Deane spent ages using the car fob on the keys to position the windows so they were open enough for air to get in but not enough for Trixie to get her head through and stuck. When we got back to the car Trixie and Arthur were going crazy, it sounds stupid but it’s like they were trying to tell us. I saw Merlin lying down. Deane got in and shook him saying his name. He saw he wasn’t moving and he pulled him straight out and Merlin was floppy.”

The family do not blame P&O for Merlin’s death, but are calling on the company to change their policy so owners can sit in the car with their pets, or for ventilated kennels to be fitted on board.

Now more than 9,200 people have signed a petition, written by family friend Nina Gadson, calling for dogs to be allowed on to the deck of ships.

P&O Ferries said the area where the Wallaces parked was ventilated, but that they would review its policy on dogs.

A post on the company’s Facebook page said: “Many airlines refuse to transport certain breeds of dogs, notably pugs, bulldogs and other brachycephalic breeds, due to the respiratory issues from which these animals are prone to suffer.  P&O Ferries, which carries more than 50,000 pet dogs a year of all breeds, is reluctant to stop offering a service to the owners of certain breeds, believing that owners are best placed to judge the suitability of conditions when transporting their animals.”