ANIMAL workers have rejected suggestions of a spate of dog “suicides” at a 40ft bridge.

Five dogs have jumped to their deaths in the past six months at the bridge at Overtoun House, Dumbarton, according to locals. The most recent was last weekend when an owner was unable to stop her dog leaping over.

Joyce Stewart, an animal behaviourist, said the deaths were abnormal as dogs were usually able to gauge the heights and depths they could jump. “If they know they are going to die they might go into hiding but I have never heard of them taking their own lives,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said: “Animals do not commit suicide. (This) shows the need for dog owners to keep their dogs under control. There is perhaps something over the bridge attracting the dogs’ attention.”

The bridge, over a tributary of the Clyde, lies within the grounds of Overtoun House, an A-listed baronial building currently run as a Christian centre. It was the scene of a family tragedy in 1994 when Kevin Moy threw his two-week-old son to his death believing him to be the Antichrist.

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