Man And His Dog Save ‘Baby Dolphin’ Stranded On Beach In Amazing Video

A dog named Leia is being hailed a hero after leading her owner to a “baby dolphin” stranded on the beach. Rich Wilcock says he was taking photographs of the beautiful scenery on the Criccieth shoreline in North Wales when his dog Leia began to bark nonstop. Eventually, he followed Leia and found what he believed was a “baby dolphin” stranded on the beach. He gently lifted the dolphin and directed it back into the water. The amazing rescue was captured on video and the Seawatch Foundation praised Rich for his actions but says they believe the “dolphin” was actually a juvenile porpoise.

In the video you see Rich as he approaches the stranded porpoise laying helplessly on the beach. Leia can be seen in the foreground barking for Rich to come closer. Rich says that at first, he thought the creature may be a small shark, but upon closer inspection, he noticed the blow hole. He gently lifted the porpoise and guided it back out to sea.

“I was stood taking pictures and videos of the scenery when Leia started to make a right old fuss. She kept coming up to me, barking and nudging me, she must have smelt the dolphin from a mile off. At first I thought it was a baby shark, it was only about one and half foot but on a closer inspection I could see the blow hole on top of his head and realized it was a dolphin.”

The Seawatch Foundation says that Rich did everything right. He did not have cellphone service to contact wildlife authorities so he did the best he could. Upon reaching cell coverage, Rich phoned in the stranded “dolphin” to authorities and the incident was reported to local science teams. The foundation says it is best to contact wildlife authorities for marine rescue before pushing the creature back into the see as the animal may be injured and in need of medical care. However, he says in the situation presented, Rich was a hero.

[Image Credit: Youtube]