VIDEO: West Lothian hero braves freezing canal to save drowning duck trapped in plastic

Allan Horne has been hailed as a hero after he jumped into the Union Canal and rescued a seriously distressed mallard stuck in a plastic cage.
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Mr Horne has received a local hero award at Westport Veterinary Clinic for his quick-thinking action which helped save the life of the helpless bird.

Lindsay Falconer, shared the video of her husband’s rescue mission on 'The Real Linlithgow Facebook page' where it received an incredible response from nearly 80 local residents.

Allan Horne has been branded a hero.Allan Horne has been branded a hero.
Allan Horne has been branded a hero.
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The video also received multiple comments from other residents nominating Mr Horne for a local hero award at Westport Veterinary Clinic.

Lindsay Falconer said: "My husband had taken our dog Selkie out for his walk when he saw the duck in distress. He hurried home to tell me and, armed with scissors, we hurried to see if we could free it.

"Unfortunately it was on the far side of the canal and we couldn’t access the duck from Rosemount Park.

"We were watching it from the towpath, discussing what to do and wondering if it had, in fact, died when Allan, who was sitting on the bench at the Canal Terrace cottages, joined the conversation.

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"To see if the duck had died, he gently threw a stone in its direction and it flapped. We talked about needing to find someone with a boat to get across.

“Suddenly Allan stood up, disappeared into his house and came back out having changed. He got into the water, swam to the duck and the rest is as you could see in the video. He is definitely a Local hero. Brave man."

Mr Horne has previous experience of handling birds through his work for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds but said this is the first time he’s had to swim in the canal to rescue one of the birds.

Discussing the rescue mission, Mr Honre said: "I noticed the duck when I was walking home along the canal. It was flapping its wings and I could see clearly it was snagged on something.

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"I initially tried to reach it from the other side of the canal but couldn't get across to it, so I just went in the canal and swam over to it.”

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