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A missing dog whose desperate owner spent £750 on hiring a helicopter to search for her has been found drowned.

Janice Bannister relentlessly scoured Anglesey for up to 12 hours a day when her Japanese Shiba Inu named Sylvia went missing there on Saturday, January 17.

But the search came to a sad end when nine-year-old Sylvia was discovered west of Caernarfon at the mainland entrance to the Menai Strait on Saturday, January 24 a few miles from where she had gone missing.

Janice, who runs a boarding kennel in Telford, lost Sylvia when she was preparing to go for a walk on Newborough beach on the south of the island with eight of her 16 dogs.

Appeals on social media led to people to travel from across the UK to join in the search on the vast stretch of dunes for the beloved pooch.

She said: “When you’re walking with a group of dogs like that you have to do a head count, so once we got around the corner from the car park I did a quick count and noticed one was missing.

“I went back to the car park and I couldn’t find her.

On a Facebook page set up to help trace her dog, Ms Bannister, from Telford, Shropshire, posted: “R.I.P. Sweet Sylvia. I am so sorry we couldn’t save you, I promised we’d find you and we did. Now you can come home to rest.

“Love and miss you, you will be forever in our hearts.”