I couldn't just watch him die: Dog owner who inched across ice to save pet explains his 'reckless' act

By CLAIRE ELLICOTT

Safe: Bentley back home in the warm with Mr Jarvis

His desperate rescue mission to save his dog from a frozen river was seen around the world after a passer-by photographed the drama.
Stripped to his underpants, Malcolm Jarvis crawled out on the ice and then fell through, before managing to save both himself and Bentley the Jack Russell.
Yesterday the 48-year-old company director bowed to critics who said the venture – which came only a week after another man had died trying to save his dog from a freezing lake – had been a silly thing to do.

Danger mission: Mr Jarvis, in just his underpants, crawls across the frozen river to Bentley, circled

But he said he could not just sit back and watch four-year-old Bentley drown.
And his family revealed that far from being grateful for being saved, Bentley was disappointed that his walk had finished so early.
Mr Jarvis had been strolling by the Stour in Dedham, Essex, with his wife, two daughters and their dog on Sunday. The family said the temperature was about -4c (25f).
They were a few minutes into their walk when Bentley spotted some ducks and chased after them on to the frozen river, despite the family’s shouts.
They watched in horror as he plunged through the ice, which was three or four inches thick, and bobbed back up in the water, trying to pull himself back on to the ice.

Loving family: Mr Jarvis with daughter Hannah, 13, and wife Rachel, 46

Mr Jarvis said: ‘He was desperately trying to scramble back on to it, but he couldn’t pull himself up.
‘We were watching his little head sink lower and lower in the water and he was getting tired and slowing down because of the cold. I was thinking, “We’re going to lose the dog – he’s going to die”. I couldn’t let that happen.
‘Then the adrenaline kicked in and I knew I had to make a decision and my gut instinct was to rescue him. Any dog owner would do the same.
‘I was wearing jeans and I didn’t want to go in the water with them. So I stripped down to my underpants.
‘I edged out and was flat on the ice so I could get as close as possible. But the ice wasn’t that thick and gave way when I was ten feet away and I fell into the water. I don’t remember the shock of the cold: I think the adrenaline had prepared my body for it.

Instinct: Mr Jarvis said that when Bentley fell in adrenaline took over and he set about rescuing him

Great escape: When Bentley was hoisted to safety Mr Jarvis said he was 'shivering but fine'

source: dailymail