Dog Dies After Falling Through Ice In Middletown Thursday

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A dog fell through ice Thursday morning in a backyard in Middletown. While both police officers and firefighters tried to rescue the animal, tragically, it did not survive, said Lt. Paul Bailey of the Middletown police department.

The incident happened around 11 a.m. today in the backyard of a home on Melrose Terrace. The dog's owner called 911 when the animal, a mature beagle, fell into a small pond in the backyard. Both Middletown police and volunteer firefighters responded, but were unable to retrieve the dog in time.

"The dog's footprints stopped at the pond and it appears as though the dog became submerged under the ice," said Lt. Bailey.

Police arrived at the home and noted paw prints in the snow that stopped at a hole in the ice, he said in a press release. Seeing that the dog, a four-year-old beagle, had become submerged, the officers, Cpl. Lawrence Seymour, Cpl. Andrew Micalizzi, and Ptl. Jason Andrews, began to break the ice. That's when the fire department showed up, and the firefighters were able to locate and remove the dog from the water.

The beagle was pulled out of the pond at 11:25 a.m., and attempts were made to revive it, but were unsuccessful. The pond was listed in the police report as four feet, but Bailey said he was not sure if that was in depth or width.

Kids and animals falling through ice is a major concern this time of year: A dog fell into a frozen creek on Leedsville Drive in Lincroft last Wednesday night, Jan. 3. A Middletown police officer jumped into the frozen creek and rescued the animal, saving its life, eyewitnesses told Patch. Read that story: Dog Falls Into Frozen Middletown Creek, Rescued By Police

"Thank God that cop was there, or else that dog would have been a Popsicle," said Lincroft resident Steve Triano, who witnessed the entire thing.

Top photo a stock image via Pixabay/Not the actual dog in the article.