Pet owner speaks out after finding pins on coastal path

A DOG owner has said his pet was lucky to avoid being injured after ‘at least a dozen’ drawing pins were left scattered on a popular walking route in St Brelade.

Marc Le Cornu spotted the pins on the coastal path between La Rosiére and Corbière, close to the desalination plant, on Sunday afternoon, picking them up before his seven-month-old border collie, Ozzy, stepped on them.

Mr Le Cornu said: ‘We had started our walk at Beauport and, as I came around the track, I saw some gold objects reflecting on the path.

‘I initially thought that someone had dropped their jewellery.’

The pins looked as if they had been dropped ‘pretty recently’ and were ‘absolutely brand new’, according to Mr Le Cornu.

He said: ‘Our dog was walking straight ahead of us and had reached the area where the pins were. He was lucky to avoid stepping on one. Something needs to be done; this was a deliberate act.’

In 2020, a dog was injured and several cyclists’ bikes tyres were punctured after hundreds of drawing pins were dropped along St Aubin's Bay.

The Railway Walk has also been targeted in the past.

St Brelade Constable Mike Jackson said that dropping pins on public pathways was ‘ill-considered and really sad to see’.

He added that an individual who had dropped pins ‘four or five years ago’ at the Railway Walk had been ‘identified and dealt with accordingly’.

He added that ‘punctures are a massive inconvenience’ for cyclists and warned about the impact that drawing pins could have on animals ‘who don't wear shoes’.

St Brelade Centenier Michel Bougeard said that a few years ago there was a ‘spate’ of drawing pins being dropped on the Railway Walk.

He encouraged Islanders to report any sightings of such behaviour to the States police.

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