A WOMAN has demanded adders be relocated after her dog was bitten by a snake and spent days in the vets.

Clare Mitchell, 41, was visiting her mother Barbara with her daughter Isobel and dog, Lily, in Gorse Close, Mile Oak.

While playing in the garden, Lily, an eight-year-old labrador crossed with a boarder collie, was bitten by what her owners believe to have been an adder.

Clare said: “I have never heard an animal make such an awful noise before. She was just in so much pain I couldn’t bear it.

“Her leg swelled up and she had to spend three days in the pet hospital poor thing.

“It’s not the adders fault, they are only moving around because their habitat is being disturbed. It’s time someone moved them.”

According to Barbara the land above Mile Oak has had snakes for years, but she has never had issues with them wriggling down to her garden before.

She said: “Since there’s a planning application for the land we were told the adders were going to be relocated, but they clearly haven’t been.Their habitat is going to be ruined so someone needs to think about them.

“It would also save people a £2,000 vet bill. Lily was in the hospital for three days.”

Barbara said she couldn’t bear to think what would have happened if nine-year-old Isobel was bitten.

“I know Lily must have disturbed the snake because they don’t normally strike I don’t think, but their habitat is going to be built on and they are making their way down to my garden which isn’t good news,” she said.

“It’s going to be a nightmare for people with pets and young children if they don’t arrange to move them. I think there was talk of moving them up to Whitehawk Hill where there is a nature reserve.”

A spokeswoman from Brighton and Hove City Council said: “More than 2,000 lizards and slow worms were relocated from Mile Oak to Whitehawk as part of a section 106 agreement with the developers. Adders were not part of this agreement.There has always been a small population of adders at Mile Oak and incidents like this occasionally occur when they are disturbed by dogs. However, adders are reclusive and docile creatures and very unlikely to bite a child.”

A spokesman from Thakeham Homes, who is building on the area, said: “We are preparing a plan to ensure no wildlife will be harmed.”