A concerned woman has told how she discovered pieces of "metal or plastic" baked inside Tesco dog biscuits after her pet fell ill.
Paula Hoyle, from Widnes, noticed her dog, Saffie, became unwell in September and took her to the vets.
The vets did not know what was wrong with the nine-year-old Labrador, so put her on a course of antibiotics and allowed her home but she did not recover.
It was six days later, however, that Paula's husband Jon discovered "plastic or metal wire" was baked inside the dog biscuits that Saffie eats daily.
Paula Hoyle
She said: "The vet didn't know what was wrong so Saffie was given some antibiotics, but she wasn't getting any better.
"Then Jon picked up a biscuit bone that she has every day and saw some thin wire or metal sticking out.
"We had still been feeding her them whilst she was ill."
The box of Tesco's own brand Biscuit Bones were purchased from the superstore in Widnes.
Immediately, the couple stopped giving Saffie the biscuits and claim she quickly recovered - although there is no evidence to suggest this was the cause of her illness.
The mum added that her other dog, a nine-year-old Lurcher named Pip, did not eat any biscuits and didn't experience any sickness like Saffie.
Paula Hoyle
Paula reported their findings to the supermarket giant and was asked to send a sample of the product to the manufacturer.
The mum-of-one explained: "I rang the customer services at Tesco and was told someone would be in touch, and a few days later I got a letter from the manufacturer.
"I sent a sample of the biscuit to them, as well as all the photographs I had.
"I was told, after investigation, that the object may have been a brush from a machine but they couldn't say for certain."
Paula Hoyle
The case was passed back to Tesco and Paula was offered a £20 voucher, which she says she declined.
She explained: "I was offered a £20 voucher, but what about my vet bill?
"I was told if I wanted to claim back costs I would have to get in touch with their legal team and prove it was the biscuits that caused the illness. How am I going to do that?
"I said I'm not accepting the £20 and I will put a post on Facebook as I want to get the word out there for people to be wary of these biscuits.
"I am concerned about other dogs who could have eaten this batch. I hoped Tesco would have taken this more seriously."
Paula Hoyle
The couple have issued a warning on social media, and it has been shared more than 3,000 times so far.
Paula says Tesco is her local supermarket, and that the experience has left her very disappointed.
She says this is the first time she had bought these particular biscuits, and hopes this was a rare occurrence and she was "just very unlucky."
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have procedures and quality checks in place to stop this kind of incident occurring so we are sorry to hear of this issue.
"We would like to apologise to Paula for her experience at our WidnesTesco Superstore and are in contact with her so that we are able to investigate this issue properly.”
