The episode of BBC2’s Saving Lives at Sea features an incident when the volunteer Minehead crew launched to rescue Skip, an injured puppy – a story featured exclusively in the Free Press.
Skip was on board Steve Yeandle’s Watchet-based charter fishing boat when he was found to have a fish hook stuck painfully in his mouth.
Skip was taken off, brought ashore, and handed over to a vet. Later he was taken to Bristol for specialist treatment but made a full recovery and now regularly goes on Steve’s fishing trips.
Minehead RNLI spokesman Chris Rundle said the incident, last September, illustrated the wide range of incidents lifeboat crews could encounter.
“We are not an animal rescue service as such but we will always do our best to help any animals that are in difficulty,” he said.
“There is the additional risk that if a dog is stuck somewhere inaccessible the owner may well attempt to rescue it and end up in trouble themselves, so creating a far more serious incident. That’s why we never mind being called out to assist.
“In this case the lifeboat service was the only solution to Skip’s problem. The tide was out, the fishing boat could not have returned to harbour for several hours and therefore the puppy would have been left in pain and discomfort for an unacceptably long time.
“We were more than happy to offer our services.”
In recent years the Minehead crew has rescued a dog which had been stranded at the bottom of Foreland Point, near Lynmouth, for a week, and another which had fallen over the cliff edge at Hurlestone Point.
Saving Lives at Sea is now in its fifth series, featuring the work of the RNLI’s 230-plus stations around the coasts of the UK and Ireland and on the River Thames.
Most of its dramatic footage has been captured using the miniature cameras now fitted as standard to RNLI lifeboats or crew members’ helmets.