Kindhearted walker digs grave for dog drowned in canal

A gruesome sight greeted 25-year-old Mullingar man Shane Greville when he set off for his regular walk along the canal recently: a dead dog, floating on the water surface.

So upset was the Tesco worker that he turned round, walked the full hour back to his own house, fetched a shovel, and hired a taxi to go back to retrieve the corpse and bury it.

Dog lover Shane, who lives at Tower View, is in no doubt but that the dog was thrown into the canal deliberately, although he says he cannot say whether the animal was alive or dead when it happened.

“When I pulled him out, his paws were in a black plastic bag,” he says, theorising that either the dog was dead when placed in the bag, or that it might have been stolen for breeding purposes – and then thrown into the canal when it was found to be neutered.

“He was a healthy looking dog, not a pup as such, but a young dog,” says Shane, guessing that the dog may have been a Springer spaniel.

Shane walks the canal every day, and while he initially thought the dog had only been placed in the water in the previous 24 hours, a woman he met along the way told him she believed the dog had been in the water for about a week.

The spot where the body was found was around an hour out of town on foot, travelling south of the Dublin Bridge.

“I just did what I’d want someone to do if my dog turned up dead in the canal,” says Shane, who has a Boxer himself. He dug a deep hole, and buried the dog alongside the canal, and later posted a picture of the dog on his Facebook page, describing it as “a disgrace”.

His friends agreed, with dozens expressing their horror, and praising Shane for his actions.

“They should have shown a bit of humanity,” was Shane’s verdict on those responsible for throwing the dog into the canal.