A FAMILY have made an impassioned plea for help in finding their pet dog after he went missing from a back garden in Bishop Auckland.

Emma and Chris Donohue had been reunited with their boxer dog Bruno after paying £2,000 to have him flown from their former home in Australia. But he escaped from a member of the family's back garden on Wednesday.

Mrs Donohue said: "We have only just come back from Australia about seven or eight weeks ago, we bought Bruno while we were over there and we just couldn't leave him so we paid to have him brought here.''

Mrs Donohue, 30, said her two daughters aged three and 11 were upset that three-year-old Bruno was missing and friends had scoured area around The Willows where he was last seen. A reward will be offered to anyone with information that leads to Bruno being found. Call 0784 325710.