Dog destroys woman's £2k wedding dress after becoming scared of fireworks

A woman's cherished £2,000 wedding dress has been left in tatters after her own dog shredded it to pieces. Jade Fellburn's eight-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Merry, ripped up her Willowby by Watters gown in a frantic state after being spooked by fireworks.

Jade, 34, said Merry is so traumatised by the loud bangs that she is now too scared to venture outside her home in Glasgow. The dog's distress reached new heights when she became so frightened that she clawed her way into a cupboard and destroyed the bridal gown.

Jade, who wore the dress when she married partner Stuart, 44, two years ago, said: "It was in a cupboard, which I thought she couldn't get to."

"We're already married, but it's a keepsake that I want to pass down. I've got an ex-colleague who is a bridal seamstress, so I will get in touch with her, and hopefully, she will be able to repair it in some way. It's a lace dress, so she destroyed a good four layers."

Jade says the fireworks started in the middle of October and will often be let off at around 4pm. But because of this, Merry is "too scared" to even go outside for a walk or to go to the toilet.

She said: "It's every second day - it can start as early as 12pm in the day but it usually starts at around 4pm or 5pm. It's getting earlier and earlier and I just don't understand it, because surely you wouldn't see the fireworks."

"She's always been scared but she's too scared to go on a walk and she's too scared to go to the toilet. We can't take her outside because we are scared she's going to bolt and run away."

"When she's in the house, she tries to dig things up and she's destroyed a mattress, a door and a door frame. She's dug that hard on the carpet on the landing, that her paws bled."

Jade says they've tried everything from playing classical music to giving Merry medication to calm her down, but nothing seems to work. The theatre technician shared: "We put classical music in every room and we've got some hemp oil, we are throwing anything at the problem."

"We use something called sileo, which is a sedative but that's £85 per pot and we are about to run out of it. I just wish that the people who are setting off the fireworks would realise that they are costing me all this money."

"Seeing your pet in that much distress is also horrible when you are trying to do everything to calm them down." Jade hopes for a future where only public fireworks displays are permitted.

She added: "I've got no problem with public displays for November 5, Diwali or Chinese New Year. If we just had public displays, then it would just be a couple nights a year when they are being let off and we could get the medication as a precaution.

"I just can't deal with people going into a shop and buying them, and then setting them off from the start of October to the end of the November. That's two months where she's terrified and we don't know if we'll be on a walk and there will just be a bang."