UK lab confirms dog was poisoned by banned pesticide

Monday 20 November 2017

A UK lab has confirmed that Cyrena, a Japanese spitz who died in July after a walk around Beauport and Les Creux, was poisoned by phorate - a pesticide that has been banned on the island for over 15 years.

Phorate attacks the nervous system in a similar way to nerve gas and can be deadly to small mammals at a high dose.

It is believed that Cyrena came into contact with phorate after it was fly-tipped in the area. The States Vet Theo Knight-Jones and Senior Countryside Officer Tim Liddiard followed Cyrena's owner, Lallie Clarke's, route to try and identify the source of the pesticide but couldn't find any. At the time, the States Vet commented: "We didn't see any traces of phorate or anything suspicious on our walk. The possible explanation is that it was either left behind a long time ago and a tiny bit somewhat became accessible, or that it was found in an old store and dumped in the area. I wouldn't see it being used commercially, it wouldn't be the logical thing to do."

Following the tragic incident, the Department for the Environment issued a reminder about an amnesty in order to "encourage people to hand in banned or out of date pesticides without fear of prosecution." The appeal proved successful as large quantities of banned herbicides were handed in to the Department. The quantities were described as "commercial" and included 5 litres of chemicals and 10 kg of dry concentrates.