"We fell in love with two puppies in Bali and need £5k to bring them home"

A British couple who fell in love with two stray dogs in Bali are now trying to bring them home - but need £5k.

James Mangan, 25, and girlfriend Chloe McPartland, 20, took the dogs in after finding them on the street.

They've since grown to love the cute pooches - and want to take them back to Liverpool.

But there's costs involved - so the pair are now trying to raise the appropriate funds.

James and Chloe claim the puppies were neglected and malnourished, and would live a better life in Britain.

And there's also the possibility the animals, known as 'Bali Dogs', may be used as food.

Although the sale of dog meat is technically banned, the trade persists.

James, who works in accountancy, said: "We've unintentionally got attached to the dogs and we won’t just leave them.

"There's no hope for them here - they wouldn’t survive on the streets, and all the rescues are full.

"When we can get them back to the UK we'll take them to the countryside on long walks - they'll have the best life.

"We never planned this but it just happened and now we can't leave them."

Chloe added: "We didn't have much choice, we could take them with us or go back on the street and we just couldn't do that."

James and Chloe first met the pups, who they affectionately named who they named Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng, after Indonesia's popular dishes, in August.

They were stood on the street outside the accommodation where the couple have now been staying for the past three months, and James and Chloe would stroke the dogs every time they saw them.

The dogs would allow the couple to touch them and would playfully chase their scooter.

They even learnt the vehicle's specific motor sound so the pups would wait outside the accommodation when they could hear James and Chloe driving nearby.

The couple began feeding the dogs and eventually brought them into their home, and quickly fell in love with them.

James said: "It's overrun with dogs here and people don't have the same attitude to them as they do in the UK.

"We witnessed people abuse them and kick them, and the dog meat trade is still a thing in Bali so it's very dangerous for them."

The couple tried to find someone in Bali to adopt them - but with so many dogs around already, nobody wanted them.

They decided "there's no way we can just leave them" and looked into bringing them back to the UK with them to become their pets back in Liverpool.

They realised it would cost more than £6,000 to do that - and started a fundraiser after realising they couldn't generate that much alone.

They're asking for £5,000 to be raised in donations and have agreed to pay anything over and above that themselves.

James said: "We've been so stressed out about all this - that number doesn't cover our costs, but we wouldn't ask people to pay for those.

"I don’t think there’s a scenario where we’d have to leave Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng here - we’ll exhaust every possibility.

"In Bali there's no parks and the conditions are bad for dogs.

"We want to bring them home and take them to the countryside, on long walks all the time.

"They have so much energy, they'd love it.

"Chloe keeps showing me these TikToks of toys they would love - they don't have many dog toys here.

"They're the happiest pups in the world - we want to give them their dream life."

Their GoFundMe is: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Help-Save-These-2-Bali-Puppies.