A dog was rushed to emergency care after consuming what is suspected to be cannabis at a local park, prompting police investigation.
Stephanie Chamings, 38, of Worcester, was taking her 18-month-old pooch Bonnie for a stroll when the dog started munching on something that looked like human waste.
Around two hours later, the pet began to lose bladder control and had difficulty standing, leaving Stephanie fearing for Bonnie’s life.
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Describing the ordeal, she said: “She looked very vacant and very lethargic. She was taken to the emergency vets and put on a drip, by the end of the day we picked her up from the vets.”
Stephanie explained further: “When we brought her home she was still extremely vacant and unaware of her surroundings, and urinating herself very frequently.”
Fortunately, by the following morning – about 24 hours post-incident – Bonnie showed signs of recovery and seemed to return to normal.
It was suggested by Stephanie’s retired vet father that the probable cause could have been cannabis within the human faeces ingested by Bonnie.
Stephanie recounted: “As soon as Bonnie fell ill, I reached out in community groups on Facebook, and I was actually approached by several people who said ‘this exact same scenario happened with my dog and all of the symptoms point to cannabis ingestion’.
“My dad’s a retired vet and he said the same. The timeline of events fall in line with cannabis ingestion.”
Local police have now verified that they are looking into the incidents and will conduct searches ‘if necessary’ to tackle the issue at hand.
Stephanie, an employee at a canine welfare company, warned: “When dogs ingest faeces of someone who has used cannabis, it can be very poisonous.”
She recounted a harrowing experience, saying: “She didn’t die, but at the time it looked like she was dying. It was very, very scary.”
The situation remains somewhat mysterious as Stephanie noted: “Nobody knows exactly what happened, all we know is it’s happened to a lot of people in the exact same scenario.”
