Dunboyne family's dog rescued from Howth cliff fall

A 12 year-old Pointer owned by a Dunboyne family was rescued by Howth RNLI  after he fell 200 feet from a cliff in north county Dublin on Sunday. 

The alarm was raised at approximately 4.30pm by a member of the public who was walking along the cliff path at Howth Head and noticed the dog’s distressed owners, the Coffey family.

The dog, Luca, had fallen from the highest point of the cliff at the nose of Howth.  In what was a challenging rescue lasting about 30 minutes, two of the lifeboat crew with the guidance of Luca’s owners at the top of the cliff, climbed over rocks and made their way to the frightened animal.

Having successfully recovered Luca, the crew then had to carefully work their way back to the lifeboat through the rocky boulders.

Matt Coffey said Luca was an old man at the age of 12, which made his surviving the fall even more remarkable.

 

John Donohoe

 

See a video of the rescue at http://rnli.org/Pages/Video-Details.aspx?VideoItemID=rH2TzMFz