By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A pair of dog poisonings at Tatterson Park has sent shudders through pet owners in Keysborough South.
Two dogs fell ill after eating unknown substances in the Villiers Road dog park in mid February.
Vets concluded that one ingested an illicit drug and the other an anti-coagulant such as rat bait.
Around the same time, a nearby resident found dog-baited meat in their back yard – presumably flung over the back fence.
Cristina Hughes from Springvale South says both her dogs have been poisoned in parks in the past six months.
She’s warning other pet owners to be vigilant for these “inhumane” acts.
Her Lagotto Romagnolo dog Bianca sniffed out and nibbled a suspected rat-poison bait in grass at Villiers Road on 17 February.
“She is not normally the type to stop and sniff something.”
A short time later, her eyes were dilated and she constantly jerked and twitched. She was successfully treated for internal bleeding at a vet.
Another dog was reportedly poisoned in the same park that day.
In November, Ms Hughes’s Labrador, Molly, fell into a paralysis after visiting a park in Kingsclere Avenue.
She had to be revived with two shots of Narcan – a treatment for drug overdose patients.
“I had seen her sniffing and eating something (in the park).
“She couldn’t move. She was stumbling on her back legs and couldn’t hold her head up.”
During a $3500 treatment and observation period, an emergency animal hospital vet concluded Molly ingested heroin or another illicit drug.
Ms Hughes now avoids the Kingsclere Avenue park, with its toilets attracting frequent drug users.
She and her dogs have returned to Tatterson Park because there’s no other nearby dog parks. But some regulars have stopped visiting the park since the poisonings.
“It’s a bit disheartening.
“I just follow (my dogs) around to see if they go sniffing after anything. You just have to be vigilant.”
Councillor Rhonda Garad said there was concern that a dog baiter was “obviously still out there”.
“They may have stopped for now because there’s a community focus.
“Keysborough South has such a strong dog-loving community – for some people, dogs are like their children.
“People were in tears and so distraught across the whole community.”
Greater Dandenong council rangers and parks-and-garden officers patrolled the park for several days afterwards, and “no evidence of any bait”, Greater Dandenong city planning director Jody Bosman said.
“This was a very limited, localised incident and no further action was required.
“This is the only case of alleged dog baiting at a public park in the City of Greater Dandenong that Council has been aware of in recent years.”
The council uses email, SMS alerts and the Lost and Found Facebook page to alert park users of “any potential issues”, Mr Bosman said.
