AN ANGRY housewife whose dead dog was left by the side of a road for five hours has hit out at the council for not coming to pick it up sooner.

Mother-of-three Helen Kunze, 29, of Highways Avenue, was distressed that the body of her dog Sheba was left on the side of Balshaw Avenue, Chorley in full view of local children, after the pet had been killed by a car.

At 9.45am a neighbour told the family that they had seen the accident. Yet, Sheba was still lying by the side of the road wrapped in brown paper at 2.30pm.

Helen, who has four young children aged eight years to four months, said: "I did not want to take a dead dog back home as it would upset the children so I thought it would be better if the council did it.

"The police said the council would be there within half an hour.

"But Sheba was laid there like a piece of rubbish. I was told by the council that there was only one dog officer and he was busy.

She added: "If I had known it was going to take that long I would have arranged for someone else to take Sheba away."

John Lechmere, head of environmental services at Chorley Council, said: "If people ring the manned number at environmental services, 01257 515722, which is monitored all day, then they will get a very speedy response.

He added: "I cannot comment on individual cases."

Sheba had run away from the family home as they were preparing to go away to Leyburn in their caravan for the weekend.

They had owned Sheba for 18 months after she was rescued by the RSPCA.

Helen said: "Sheba had been abused so she was easily frightened.

"The train had gone past and made her run away."

"When we found her she was on the side of the road outside the front of Balshaw Lane School. Even though it was the holidays there were going to be kids about."