HYNDBURN’S MP Graham Jones praised the power of social media after the owner of a lost dog he was caring for came forward.

The Labour MP, who is running for re-election next year, is an avid user of micro-blogging site Twitter, which allows users to post 140-character updates alongside pictures, links, and videos.

Mr Jones typed a tweet in the early hours of Saturday morning, which said: “Lost puppy? Black greyhound pup w/out collar found loose in av at 12pm, nearly got run over, now safe.”

Around eight hours later, he updated his 3,800 followers. He tweeted: “The power of social media! His overjoyed owner, happy he’s safe, has collected ‘Blade’. Up all night caring for him.”

To one user, who joked the MP would do ‘owt for votes’, Mr Jones replied: “His owner turned up, which shows the power of social media and resulted in one happy dog, one tired MP!”

Speaking after the event, Mr Jones said the dog had escaped his owner’s garden to chase a fox, and had narrow misses with cars before being taken in.

A friend of the owner saw Mr Jones’ social media messages and got in touch to return Blade home.

Mr Jones added: “The message is you can do the right thing. If you see an animal in distress, you do what you can to help .”