THE best Christmas present for dog-owner Christina Taylor is to have her pets back from quarantine. The Bury College lecturer, of Duncombe Road, Great Lever, said she has had six months of "hell". She was featured in the BEN in October when she argued against the current quarantine laws.

The former Withins School teacher came to Bolton from Alicante, Spain, in June with husband Ken.

But her three dogs, which she found abandoned as puppies, had to go into kennels.

It has cost the mum-of-two nearly £5,000 to transport and kennel the dogs. But she is delighted to have her animals back.

Christina said: "It is absolutely wonderful, especially in time for Christmas. It feels like a proper home now."

But Christina is still upset that her pets, which had been vaccinated every year, had to spend time in quarantine.

"It has been six months out of their lives.

"No one wants to see rabies back in this country but because my animals were vaccinated since being five weeks old, they couldn't have had the disease.

"What is even worse is when I took them from the kennels, I was given a leaflet from the Government telling me how to spot rabies in my dogs.

"I am just relieved it's all over.

"I am now looking forward to their reaction the first time they see snow."

She added that there has not been a rabies incident in Spain since 1912.

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