Training therapy dog poisoned after eating baited meat left in Brisbane suburb
A therapy dog in training was left fighting for life after eating food suspected of being laced with poison while on a walk in an inner-Brisbane suburb.
QLD News
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A GoFundMe page has been created for a training therapy dog who was left fighting for her life after eating poisonous bait in an upmarket Brisbane suburb.
Mini groodle Coco is training to be a therapy dog for her owner Tim Martin, 40, who sustained a traumatic brain injury at the age of 23, which made him permanently disabled.
Coco is currently being trained by Sami Morris who is a disability support worker and specialises in working with dogs for therapy.
Ms Morris said Coco was on a walk with another disability worker at Newstead on Monday when she ingested what looked like a meatball and later became sick.
“We almost lost her last night and she still isn’t out of the woods,” Ms Morris said on Tuesday.
“By the time I got to her she had vomited a few times, she had laboured breathing – when dogs have issues with toxins in their body they lose their gag reflex and they salivate a lot.
“She was walking around like she was drunk … it was horrible.”
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Coco has now been discharged from the vet and is resting at home, but she is still very weak from the ordeal.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help Mr Martin pay for ongoing vet bills as Coco recovers from what could have been deadly.
The incident comes as a warning to the community as Ms Morris said her local vet told her there had been more than one report of baiting in the area.
“At New Farm Park there’s been reports of sausages with snail bait or something in it,” she said.
“I’m disappointed and angry, because I work with so many therapy dogs and live in the area you get to know a lot of the animals and you have true love for them and want the best for them.
“It’s a really beautiful community, and for something like this to happen is devastating, it’s frightening.”
Ms Morris wants other pet owners to be extra vigilant around Newstead and New Farm Park.
The suspicion comes more than a year after a spate of dog baitings in Brisbane parks, where about three dogs died.
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