A Margate dog owner has contacted police after her pet picked up meat laced with suspected rat poison.
Louise Oldfield was walking her dog Polka in Hawley Square when she saw her pet had picked something up in her mouth.
Horrified guest house owner Louise then discovered the potentially fatal package. She said: “Polka picked up the clingfilm wrapped beef and what looks like poison from on the grass. I saw it and got it out of her mouth.”
Kent Police confirms a report has been made an officers are “assessing the information provided.”
The incident comes just a couple of weeks after a report of five seagulls dropping out of the sky by Margate Job Centre. The resident who witnessed this says they appeared to have been poisoned with one gull bleeding from its mouth while still holding a piece of bread in its beak.
Louise added: “A month ago I reported a dead crow to DEFRA. I had thought it was after a storm but now I wonder. I’ve been seeing ham wrapped in clingfilm but didn’t think to open it although I’ve often chucked it into the bin.”
Swallowed poisons can cause gastrointestinal irritation, vomiting, diarrhoea, restlessness, staggering, disorientation, convulsions, lethargy, loss of appetite, twitching, dilated pupils, ulcers, heart palpitations, and coma.
It is not advised to induce vomiting even if you know the poison was swallowed, unless you’ve been specifically directed to do so, as some poisons can cause more damage if vomiting occurs than if left in the stomach
