Owner left shocked after puppy fed poison

Thursday 14 June 2018

A Jersey dog owner has spoken of her shock after someone tried to poison her one-year-old German Shepherd-cross puppy by sliding food laced with rat poison under her garden gate.

Tia Frame's pup, Skye, was taken straight to the vet on Tuesday night after eating some of the food, but seems in good health now after being made to vomit.

Mrs Frame explained that she let Skye out in the front garden of her house, on James Road near Mont Millais, around 22:00 on Tuesday night. After five minutes, she and her husband went outside and he noticed a take-away container had been slid under the gate. "There is a two to three inch gap under the gate and someone had slid the food under there," Mrs Frame said. "It looked mushy green and had round pellets in it.

"We thought 'this is not right.' My husband touched a little bit on the tip of his tongue and said it was very bitter. 'There is something in it,' he said."

While the couple didn't know if Skye had eaten any of the food, they noticed soon after she was drinking lots of water. They took her to the vet who gave Skye tablets to make her sick to make sure the poison was out. While tests will confirm what nature the poison was, it is suspected it was rat poison.

Mrs Frame said that the pup had eaten quite a lot of the food. "She seems alright now," she added. "We had to take her back in today so that the vet could do blood tests to check nothing was in her system and we will have to take her back tomorrow."

Pictured: The take-away container was full of food and slipped under the gate of Mrs Frame's garden.

The couple's other dog, three-year-old Teddy, a German Shepherd and Skye's father, luckily didn't eat any of the food.

Mrs Frame contacted the police shortly after the incident. They advised that the first thing to do was to take care of Skye and take her to the vet. Officers will also be visiting her home tonight. 

Mrs Frame, while relieved her pup is feeling better after the "awful" experience, is hoping they will be able to find whoever left the poison under her gate. She says she can't get her head around the idea that someone would want to harm Skye. "I cannot believe it. I don't know anyone who would do this, I have no enemies. Other people in the neighbourhood have dogs. I don't know all of my neighbours but everyone seems to say hello. 

"I have been here for eight years and I have always had dogs. I have never had any problems with anyone, no one complained about the dogs. My dogs don't bark at night. Even if someone had a problem, or something to say, you would think they would come round and have a chat. I can't think of any logical human being who would do this instead. It's unbelievable."