WATCH: A warning for dog owners in Victoria. This, after a man, found a box of poison in the bushes of Barnard Park near the off-leash area Saturday morning. As Luisa Alvarez tells us, the man who found it says he’s worried it’s already caused harm to dogs.
Lately its been perfect to take your dog for a walk and even better let them off the leash at Barnard park, but Eric Pittman says it’s important to keep an eye on what they’re getting into in the bushes.
That warning comes after he found and removed a box of poison in a bush.
“As you leave the parking area to go towards the off-leash dog park in Barnard park its one of the first bushes you’d come to,” said Pittman.
He can’t quite fathom why someone would put that there.
(Photo: Eric Pittman)
“Any little animal that gets killed by poison in the park is then subsequently going to be eaten by some other animal like an owl or a cat or a dog, It’s certainly not supposed to be in a public park and I spoke to animal control who told me for sure they do not put poison in parks,” said Pittman.
Which leaves him and others an eerie feeling it could have been done on purpose.
“I can’t believe they are actually trying to trap rats in a park so that must be intentional,” said Pat Rose who frequents the park with her pup Skippy.
Bob Osborne also thinks it could have been planted there with ill intentions.
(Photo: Eric Pittman)
“For someone to put rat poison in a dog park that’s an intentional thing,” said Osborne.
Police have been notified and while they say there is no evidence to suggest it was put there to harm dogs they will be following up with park staff.
But in the meantime, Pittman says what’s even more disturbing is nobody knows how long it could have been laying there.
“I’ve known several people whose dogs have gotten very ill in that park and this may have been one of the causes,” said Pittman.
It wouldn’t be the first time a dog has gotten sick at the park from eating something in that same bush. Osborne’s dog Parker also had a mishap.
“My dog Parker was off leash and there was human excrement there and he ate some and it was full of drugs,” said Pittman.
Poor Parker couldn’t even stand up and Osborne says he had to be rushed to the vet. They were able to detox him but it took a whole day before he was back to his normal self.
“And that’s the second dog that has happened to because the day before a husky that also goes to that park had that happen to him,” said Osborne.
The area is often used by homeless people to camp overnight so it’s clear that was an unfortunate accident but both the human feces and the rat poison are cautionary tales for dog owners.
Stay vigilant about where your pup’s nose ends up. Especially when there is no telling what could be lurking in the bushes.
“Please don’t put poison in parks,” said Pittman.
(Photo: Eric Pittman)
Luisa Alvarez
