Dog owner is fined £100 for parking six hours while pet was being put down after spending £1,500 on treatment

A heartbroken dog owner was slapped with a £100 parking fine for spending six hours at the vets while his beloved pet was put down.

David Atkinson, 49, rushed his nine-year-old bulldog Reggie to the vet after he had started wheezing and struggling to breathe on September 19.

Once at Vets for Pets, inside Pets at Home in Canterbury, he spent £1,500 on emergency scans and treatment, but tragically, the vet said Reggie had to be put down.

After the lonely journey home without the family pet, Mr Atkinson was struck with another blow when a parking charge arrived in the post a few days later.

Mr Atkinson said: 'It's just an insult. To think that a parking ticket is warranted in that situation is beyond belief.'

The bereaved owner had spent six gruelling hours tending to his dying dog - but he forgot there was a three-hour time limit in the car park outside, which he had more than doubled.

Despite explaining the circumstances, parking firm UK Car Park Management (UKCPM) initially rejected his appeal, leaving Mr Atkinson furious at what he called a complete lack of compassion.

Bosses have now confirmed they have cancelled the charge as a 'gesture of goodwill'.

'I genuinely believed once they received my appeal and the reasons why I was there for so long, they would understand and just cancel the parking fine,' Mr Atkinson said before the fee was rescinded.

'I thought with any kind of human compassion, you'd read the appeal and understand why I was there for six hours.

'It's not like I'd parked my car and walked into town. I was inside the vet's.

'It didn't cross my mind at any stage that I would have to come and move my car because I was passing the three-hour time limit.

'When my dog's dying, it wasn't really on my mind to be doing that.'

The ordeal began when Mr Atkinson took Reggie for a walk in Blean Woods, near Canterbury, on Saturday, September 19.

But on their way home, the bulldog began struggling to breathe.

'I went home and just thought he would lie in the garden and calm himself down,' Mr Atkinson recalled.

'But he never did, so I took him to the vets as his breathing seemed to get worse. You could see he was struggling.'

ANPR cameras recorded Mr Atkinson arriving in his Porsche Taycan at 2.21pm and leaving at 8.55pm, a total stay of six hours and 34 minutes, more than double the car park's three-hour limit.

During that time, vets sedated Reggie and carried out X-rays and CT scans, but Mr Atkinson, who lives in Canterbury, was eventually told his windpipe was bent and his heart was inflamed.

With no prospect of recovery, Reggie had to be put to sleep.

Mr Atkinson - who works as a director of an online jewellery retailer - remained at the practice throughout Reggie's treatment, briefly sitting in his car while scans were carried out.

When Pets at Home closed at 7pm, he had to leave the building temporarily before being allowed back inside to spend a final hour saying goodbye.

After receiving the parking charge and having his appeal rejected, Mr Atkinson telephoned UKCPM to check whether the company understood his circumstances.

But the company's initial refusal to back down prompted him to contact local media.

'It just seemed very non-sympathetic to the situation that my dog passed away, and I was there for six hours with him in intensive care,' he said.

'Then to get the fine just seemed very upsetting, and it angered me.'

Mr Atkinson stressed he had no complaints about the veterinary practice, which he said offered to contact the parking company with proof of how long Reggie had been receiving treatment.

But he questioned why a three-hour restriction was in place at a car park serving a veterinary practice where emergency treatment could take much longer.

'Maybe if it's just a supermarket, you don't need to be there for three hours. I understand that,' he said.

'But for a vet, you might have to be there for that long. Why would you have a parking limit on an area which could be as sensitive as that?'

Mr Atkinson said the loss of Reggie has been a devastating blow for his family, particularly his three children, aged 11, eight and five, who had grown up alongside 'the fantastic dog'.

'He had a great temperament, just a fantastic dog,' Mr Atkinson said.

'Before I left for the vets, I told the kids to come and give him a stroke and say goodbye to him, just in case. I didn't want them not to have a chance to say goodbye.

'They got extremely upset, and I said, "It's okay, dad is going to be coming home with him. Just give him a stroke and tell him you love him."

'And then, of course, he never did come home.'

In a statement, a spokesman for UKCPM said the company is 'very sorry to hear about Mr Atkinson's loss and recognises the difficult circumstances surrounding his visit'.

'When the original appeal was reviewed, we did not have supporting evidence relating to the emergency veterinary treatment and the decision was therefore made based on the information available at the time,' they said.

'Having reviewed the circumstances, we recognise this was an exceptional situation and have cancelled the parking charge as a gesture of goodwill.'

UKCPM's decision comes just days after Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced tougher rules for private parking firms, including a 10-minute grace period and the cancellation of charges in certain medical emergencies.

However, the new rules have yet to come into force, and it remains unclear whether the provisions covering medical emergencies would extend to veterinary treatment.

Pets at Home has been contacted for comment.