DOG lovers descended on the Forest from all over Britain this week to search for a rescue lurcher that had bolted only days after getting to his new home.

But hard-hearted Forestry Commission officials have told the hound’s broken-hearted owners they must take down all the posters appealing for his return.

A massive hunt for missing Wolfie – who was rescued from Greece – has been gathering pace.

Hordes of people from Nottingham, Camberley, Fareham and London have come to search for Wolfie, who ran away from his Linwood home just 36 hours after arriving.

His owners Sue and Grahame Stanford are distraught after Wolfie escaped from their home in Toms Lane on Bank Holiday Monday.

Sue, pictured, said: “The thought of him alone and scared is too much to bear.

“We are devastated. We have been waiting to rehome Wolfie for months.

“He was in a desperate state - thin and very nervous.

“My husband was talking to our neighbour with Wolfie on a lead and suddenly he just bolted, like a greyhound starting a race. He took off with the lead still on and ran like the wind into the Forest.

“We chased in vain to catch him. My husband just feels so terrible and so guilty.

“We love him so much. This is just devastating.”

Sue added: “We want people to report sightings to us the minute they see him. Please don’t chase or call him – he is so timid he will just run away”.

Wolfie’s plight was posted on and idea of the nervous young lurcher, lost and afraid in the middle of the New Forest, gripped people’s imaginations – they have been scouring the Forest in their droves.

Mr and Mrs Stanford have put posters everywhere, urging people to call if they see him.

But now the Forestry Commission has told the couple to take the posters down by Sunday.

Sue said: “We are so angry and upset. We are responsible Forest people and have used a staple gun to attach the posters, not drawing pins. We can’t believe the commission is not helping us.”

Wolfie is a medium size, black and tan, wire-haired lurcher. He has been spotted several times over a wide area since he went missing, with the last sighting on the Mockbeggar side of Iblsey on Wednesday morning.

Sue’s neighbour Alison Mills said: “People have covered a huge area on horseback, walking and on bikes, but it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, complicated by the poor mobile reception here.”