A DOG was left covered in oil or diesel after leaping into polluted stream.

Max the snow-white Husky and German Shephard mix was on his usual walk with his owner Hannah Barudi in West Swindon.

They were near a stream in Even Swindon with her German Shephard Millie.

Max jumped jumped in the water but when he came out, he was covered in a black substance believed to be oil or diesel.

“At the end of our usual walk they normally walk near the stream and before I could get to them they ran into the water,” Hannah said.

“Max came out absolutely covered. He ended up rolling in the grass to try and get it off. I couldn’t see anything untoward about the water until I got quite close and it looked as if there was oil or diesel in it.

“When I saw him I thought ‘Oh my God what is that?’. He was so greasy and it smelt. I took them straight home and checked they hadn’t ingested it and that they were going to be okay.

“It’s really disappointing that someone has dumped something in there. There’s fewer places you can take your dogs and let them run around safely, they’ve just eliminated one of those possibilities.”

Hannah’s partner Stef was shocked to see the state of the dogs.

Stef Wadsworth said: “They were covered, it just stank.

“We’ve been walking around there for nearly a year now and there’s never been an issue, for whatever reason, the water was definitely contaminated by something.

“Where it happened, it’s not near a road, it’s in the middle of the field so there’s no way it’s run off from a car, someone must have dumped it in there.

“I was so upset when I saw Max, I was so worried about him and the state of his fur. At one point we were discussing shaving him because it was so matted and we washed him a good seven or eight times. It was bad but we’ve managed to get rid of most of it.”

A spokesperson for Environment Agency said: “Our officers investigated a report of black discoloured water in a small stretch of the River Ray in the Even Swindon area. The officers found no signs of oil pollution or wildlife in distress.

“We urge members of the public to report environmental incidents to us by using our 24 hour hotline on 0800 80 70 60.”