A NORTH-EAST animal-lover has told how she spent her life savings to rescue a puppy facing almost certain death on a Greek island.

Angie Walker has paid £2,500 for vaccinations, quarantine and transit for the puppy she found roaming a Corfu beach with a pack of wild dogs.

Since paying to bring the dog home to County Durham, she has had to take on part-time work to try to recover some of the money.

Angie felt compelled to rescue the five-month-old bitch, named Effie, after it latched on to her while on holiday last October.

After learning of the fate of many strays in Greece - at the end of the holiday season they are routinely beaten to death, poisoned or shot - she had to act, despite the crippling cost.

Earlier this week, The Northern Echo exposed the torture meted out to puppies on the Greek isle of Kalymnos.

Our investigation uncovered the practice of tormenting dogs to drive them half crazy so they become vicious hunters.

Angie, of Claypath in Durham City, said: "It used all my holiday money and I haven't got a ha'penny left of my life savings.

"Even though I'm almost destitute now, it's still worth it to have Effie here with me."

After the two-week holiday with her daughter and a friend, she left Effie with a Greek animal sanctuary run by an English woman and returned to Britain anticipating the full cost of the dog's transit coming to no more than a few hundred pounds.

But Angie had to pay £140 for two vaccinations, one in Greece then a second at Heathrow, followed by £1,500 for six months in quarantine, plus the cost of the flight and vets bills.

Sheila Gretton, who accompanied her on holiday, paid about £800 toward the cost, but the remaining £1,700 has come out of Angie's pocket.

Angie added: "I had no choice because she really got under our skin. We heard so many horror stories about what happens to animals out there.

"Thankfully, Effie is out of that now. She's settled down very nicely."