“She was there, two or three steps in front of me and then she just disappeared into the ground,” says Anna Hermannsdóttir from Hafnarfjörður, who watched helplessly as her four-month-old puppy vanished last week on a walk in the Vatnsleysuströnd area, near her hometown. The puppy, named Jackie, fell into a hole, roughly 35 centimeters across, according to Anna.
The hole was full of water and the puppy drowned; her body remaining stuck in the hole for an entire day.
Anna says the hole is obviously manmade and that she believes it is connected to experiments in the area to drill for hot geothermal water.
“It was really alarming. I went there with Jackie and her family. The area is zoned as common land and I wanted to let the dogs run free,” Anna told Vísir.is.
Anna is a dog breeder and says she has often visited the area, for many years – adding that it is essential to let puppies run free in nature, as it is an important part of their development. “I thought it was a completely safe area. The hole was hidden by grass and I was really surprised when Jackie sank down there. I thought at first that it was just a crevasse,” she explained.
Jackie’s family were reportedly equally shocked, and all gathered around the hole, barking. This did not help Anna as she searched the hole from above, shoulder deep in water.
After a while, Anna says she realized she was not going to get Jackie out and rushed home to Hafnarfjörður to get her husband, a rake and a several large sticks.
Anna says the hole below was much wider than its opening suggested, and also very deep. “The longest pole we had was 170 centimeters long. That wasn’t enough to reach the bottom and not even the sides.”
After a long search and a trip home to get a longer pole, the couple finally admitted that Jackie was almost certainly drowned. Anna’s husband returned the following day with a three-meter-long pole which did reach to the side. After about an hour, he managed to retrieve the puppy’s body.
Anna says she barely slept for three days after the incident and that it is a nightmare no animal lover should have to go through. Several days after informing the police, nothing had yet been done to make the mysterious hole safe. The area is common land an area where pre-school children are taken to play.
The dog pictured is used for illustration purposes only and is not connected to the story.
