A dog was lucky to escape without serious injury when she ran into fishing line that had been stretched across a popular walking spot.

Maria Wright had just thrown a ball for her three-year-old border collie Kadie in a field next to Singleton Lake, Ashford, when the dog stopped suddenly and fell over.

Rushing to her pet’s aid, Maria also ended up caught in the line, which was so strong she could not break it by hand.

The 50-year-old care worker said: “I ran over to her and got tangled up in something. It was fishing line, wrapped around my dog’s legs and mine. I struggled to free us.

“It was attached to a nearby tree then came down tight, at an angle, and the end was embedded in the ground by a heavy weight. I had to dig down about a hand’s depth to remove it.

"I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t been able to dig it out because the line can’t be broken by hand, you need a knife to cut it.

“Thank God my dog was okay but it could have been a lot worse. If the dog had jumped into the line it could have decapitated her or if a small child had run into it they could have suffered a severe injury. It angered me so much.”

Maria, who lives in Badgers Oak, has untangled a gosling from fishing line near the lake before.

She said she spoke to a fisherman who told her it was a carp line with a weight on the end.

He assured her no responsible angler would leave fishing line behind and said
people with a fishing licence did not tend to fish in the area where the line was found.

Speaking to whoever left the wire behind, she added: “Please be aware that other people use the lake and we all wish to enjoy it without getting strangled by discarded fishing line.

“I used to take Kadie walking there all the time but I’m frightened to go there now.

“Why can’t people understand how dangerous their actions are when they discard their fishing line in this way? You can’t see it until it’s too late. Surely it’s easier to take it home.”