A DALES clergyman invited those with pets to bring them to church for a special service and blessing.

Pets were on their best behaviour last week when they were invited guests at a special service at St Mathew’s Church, Leyburn.

It was the idea of the Rev Michael Hepper, a keen animal lover.

He said: “I wanted everybody to bring their pets along for a blessing as a way of saying thank you for all the fun, friendship and faithfulness they freely give.”

The guests included dogs, pigeons, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, and even a bearded dragon. Others who could not bring their pets due to size or nervousness brought a picture or an ipad with images of the family friends on.

During the service Mr Hepper provided some statistics on pet ownership in the UK. He said there were 67 million pets of which there were 10 million dogs, 10 million cats, and 25 million fish along with equally large numbers of hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits.

Claire Seeds, newly resident in the town who attended with her son Daniel and hamsters Bert and Harry, said: “It was a lovely service, quite unusual and all the pets behaved themselves very well.”