The couple's black Labrador, Brit, suffocated when it got her head stuck in an empty bag, used to wrap cooked chicken.

Now they want supermarkets to make sure all their bags have holes punched in them to stop other animals meeting a similar fate.

"I've lost 10lbs in weight I've been so upset about Brit's death - I'm supposed to be a big tough trucker," said Joe, 58, a wagon driver.

"It's devastated us, our children are left home and married now and she was like a bairn to us."

The couple had looked after their 12-year-old Labrador since it was a puppy until it died in the accident last Wednesday.

Joe told how wife Christine, 56, found Brit's lifeless body in the couple's garden, her head covered in the chicken wrapper that killed her.

"She was outside and the bag, one of them that they use to put cooked chickens in, must have blown into the garden. She must have been trying to lick the juices out of it," he said.

"We were shouting for her but she didn't come in, so my wife ran outside and found her lying by the car with the bag on her head."

Joe and Christine, of Kipling Avenue, West Boldon, said they loved their dog like a child and had even bought a caravan in Warkworth so they could take the Labrador away to the countryside.

They had also bought a large car, a Renault Megan Scenic, so Brit would be comfortable when they were transporting her about.

"Even the car we bought for her," he said. "We can never go to that caravan, we're too upset."

He added: "People keep saying we should get a puppy, and that she was just a dog.

"I say 'she may have been just a dog to you, but to us she was like a child'."

Joe, who is off work recovering from an accident at home, said he wants supermarkets to use foil to wrap cooked chickens and make sure all their packaging is punched with holes to stop the same fate meeting other pets.

"I rang the supermarket and said they should punch holes in their bags, but they said the juices would pour out - I told them they should use foil instead," he said.

"I'm in my 50s now but I can remember things on television when I was little talking about making sure plastic bags had holes in."