A heroic young man dived into the sea to save the life of a lamb that was struggling in the water after being chased in by a dog.
Joseph Neill, who was out on a walk with his girlfriend Ellie on Saturday morning in Ogmore-by-Sea near the lifeguard centre, rushed into action when he saw what was happening. A small dog had got away from its owners and chased a flock of sheep in Ogmore Rivermouth car park. One lamb was separated from the group and the dog chased it out into the sea.
The dog continued to pursue the lamb and it swam further out, reaching about eight metres from the beach. The dog was able to be brought out of the water, but the lamb was still struggling.
Mr Neill, 19, who has some knowledge of agriculture having studied it in college, decided to step in to help, taking off his shirt and diving into the water to help out. He was able to get to the lamb and bring it back to safety.
Recalling the day's events, Mr Neill, who works for Asda, said: "Myself and my girlfriend went out for a nice little walk around the seafront and then we heard a dog first of all yapping. I didn't know what had happened. Then we saw it was chasing a lamb and that it had gone into the water.
"I had done a year of agriculture in college, I'm big into farming. By the time I got there the dog and the lamb were both eight metres into the water. The dog was able to be brought out but the lamb kept swimming. I knew it would exhaust itself if it carried on and it wouldn't end well, so I did what I thought anyone else would have done and took my jumper off and dived in to go and rescue it.
"I knew roughly how to swim to get the sheep back safely. I got it back to shore and made sure it had no cuts and that its airways were cleared. It started sneezing which was a good sign, but it couldn't stand up, it was physically exhausted. I stayed with it for 10 to 15 minutes until it was able to stand and then I went home and got changed."
Mr Neill explained he has been inundated with praise since performing the rescue, after a passerby who saw his actions posted a picture of him on Facebook to commend him.
"It's been overwhelming to be honest," he said. "I was out last night and one of the boys texted me and said 'Is this you?' It was a yearling lamb and it was in distress. I just did what I thought anyone else would have.
"I know the farmer who owns the lamb and he has thanked me for what I did."
