Dog Survives Fall Through Canal Ice

A Golden Retriever is OK after falling through ice on Monday evening in Wenham.

It happened at about 5 p.m. on the Grand Wenham Canal, an area popular with dog walkers.

The Wenham Fire Department was called to the canal to perform a rescue, Chief Bob Blanchard said.

But just as the first responders from both the Fire Department and Wenham Police Department arrived, the dog was out of the water.

“The owner of the dog got the dog out before we had to do anything,” Blanchard said.

The name of the dog and the dog’s owner was not released. The dog’s owner was OK and Blanchard said the dog was also believed to be OK but he did not know whether the dog was being taken to a veterinarian to be checked out.

The canal is part of the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board’s system to move water from the Ipswich River to Wenham Lake, where the two cities draw their public water supply. It is in Wenham and Topsfield and has walking paths along both sides that are accessed off Old Town Way in Wenham.

While there’s ice on the canal, and other small water bodies such as Weaver Pond at Patton Park in Hamilton, other water bodies still have open water.

“The moral of the story is to keep off the ice,” Blanchard said.