Drink drive tragedy unravels after fisherman posts dog rescue video online

An attempt by a Sarasota fisherman to explain the mystery of how he came to rescue a stray dog from the water whilst out kayaking has revealed a tragic story. The fisherman was off the coast near Siesta Key, Florida when he was approached by the collared but untagged stray who was in a state of some distress and bleeding from several wounds. After initial efforts to locate the dog's owner proved fruitless, the rescuer returned to shore with the injured animal strapped to the back of his kayak.

He later took the canine to a vet who was able to identify Barney and his owner from the dog's identification chip. It would appear that the vet in question was not able to reveal the mystery behind how Barney came to be in water however, as the amateur fisherman then posted video of the incident online on Saturday in his attempt to get to the bottom of the case.


YouTube link.

A day later a tragic explanation of the incident revealed itself after it transpired that the dog's owner, 53 year-old Donna Chen, had been hit and killed by a drunk driver whilst out walking her pet on Saturday afternoon. According to local police Ms Chen was killed when Blake Talman, 22, who was fleeing from another crash scene, struck her and her dog as they walked along the pavement around a mile away from where Barney later turned up on camera. Updating the YouTube entry to confirm that the mystery had been solved in a "very sad and unfortunate" fashion, Barney's rescuer later commented on what he believed had happened following the accident.

He stated: "Our guess is that he [Barney] was so freaked out and traumatised that he just wanted to get as far away from there as possible. And when he ran out of land, he took to the water. I feel lucky that I was there fishing, because there was no place for him to go and I don't know if he could have made it much further. He's banged up, but fine. Our hearts go out to the family who lost their mother."