NORTH Vancouver's Princess Park had long been Rob McLeod's favourite place to take his dogs for walks, until the day they came home sick.
The two toy poodles, Linus and Lola, had both been poisoned by antifreeze on a trip to the park in June, but it wasn't until the next morning that McLeod noticed the symptoms. When he let them out of their pen they were shaking, and Linus couldn't stand up. The dogs were also incontinent and vomiting. McLeod rushed them to the Capilano Pet Hospital and then to the Canada West Veterinary Clinic in Vancouver, where veterinarians finally discovered the cause of the illness.
Lola survived, but Linus, suffering kidney failure, had to be put down.
"They put him to sleep in
my arms," said McLeod. "It was devastating. He had so much character; he was such a wonderful little companion, a little dog with a big heart."
McLeod, convinced the poisoning took place at the park - it was their only outing that day and he doesn't keep the substance at home - is now warning other owners to be careful when they take their pets out. It's likely the animals lapped the toxin up off the pavement, where it had leaked from a car. McLeod wants others to avoid the same tragedy, he said.
Laurence Braun, a veterinarian at Canada West, said they have seen two incidents of antifreeze poisoning from the North Shore this summer, including another one just last week where the dog had to be put down. Most antifreeze is sweet tasting and attracts dogs, he said, while cats will sometime walk through a spill and then ingest it while cleaning themselves.
Richard Boulton, the parks and environmental services manager for the district of North Vancouver, said staff don't use poisonous materials in public; however, sometimes car leaks will leave antifreeze or other materials in the parking lots where dogs can find it.
In particular, he warned dog owners not to let their dogs off leash until they left the parking lot area, as all off-leash trails and parks only start 10 metres into the trail or away from parking lots.
"Especially in the summer months when parks are in use, it's hot out, a car . . . with a radiator or leaky hose or overheating problem spills antifreeze on the ground," he said.
Since 2009, all manufacturers selling antifreeze in B.C. have been required to add a bittering agent to make it less attractive for pets, but Braun said the agents aren't effective, as shown in the two recent North Shore dog poisonings.
"It's tragic, mostly because there's a way to prevent this; there's a way to just ban it," she said, adding less-toxic options are available but cost a few dollars more.
