A DOG owner was scared his puppy might get hurt after it came across a discarded syringe on a South Ayrshire beach.

Ross Cunningham, was out taking his dog for a New Year walk on Turnberry Beach when the pooch came across the sharp needle that was lying in between rocks and seashells on the sand.

The 26-year-old from Girvan was left shocked after his young pup sniffed out the hazardous object whilst it was running along the shore front.

Ross told the Advertiser: “I was down walking the dog. I was on my way along the beach back towards the car and the dog, she started sniffing at something. I was trying to get her away from it and I just saw the needle sitting about six inches away from her.

“I’ve never really seen needles on the beach, but you usually see broken glass all that sort of stuff. I think it’s more common now than what we let on to ourselves.”

“I would rather have picked it up and got rid of it but it’s just a pup that I’ve got so we try to keep her to one side and I thought I’m not risking getting stuck with it, or the dog trying to get to it.”

Ross, unable to deal with the needle himself issued an online warning to others who visit the beach which is popular with dog walkers.

Since the incident on Monday, January 6, Ross was unsure who to report the discarded needle to and struggled to find advice on South Ayrshire Council’s website.

He was eventually able to report it after speaking with an advisor at SAC Customer Services.

Now Ross has called for better awareness surrounding needles and sharp objects found in public places.

He added: “I’m not sure if there is something similar already but perhaps a call for notices to be in place at the more popular beaches i.e Troon, Ayr, with information on what to do when you come across items such as needles, broken glass, alcohol, general hazardous items.”

“I trawled the South Ayrshire Council website and found nothing relating to it, I followed a link from a gov.uk website and when you put the postcode in, it sends you to the home page for SAC.” South Ayrshire Council confirmed they received a report of the needle on Turnberry Beach and have advised there is information at hand to help residents who come across discarded needles.

A spokesperson for SAC said: “We had a report that a syringe was found on Turnberry Beach earlier in the week. We don’t recommend the public pick up syringes, even those without needles. It is always safer to contact the council on 0300 123 0900, so we can arrange for safe disposal.”