[ad_1]
Supplied
Terah is an award-winning agility dog
Before competing with her dogs in any agility competitions, Belinda Culling likes to arrive early and let them get a feel for the environment.
When she arrived at the Otago Taieri A & P ground, just outside of Mosgiel in early May, she let her four competition dogs off their lead “to give them a warm-up and a toilet, all that sort of stuff’’.
That large ground was home to an old shed, which immediately attracted the attention of Terah, a nine-year-old inquisitive border collie, who won his class of the New Zealand Dog Agility Championships in 2018.
’’He is a legend,’’ she said.
Supplied
A shed in an area that was designated for toileting dogs and was considered an off lead area.
‘’I saw around the backside of it there was a gate attached to nothing and a sign saying ‘poison’.’’
But it was already too late, with Terah, who is due to retire next year, eating some green pellets of poison.
That’s when Culling grabbed some salt from a nearby building and ‘’shoved down his throat to induce vomiting’’.
‘’He just vomited green, and there were full undigested pellets in his vomit.’’
Supplied
The back of the shed where a sign saying ‘poison’ can be seen.
That poison, she later found out was Pindone, a slow acting anticoagulant poison which was popular for controlling rabbits. But it also meant it ‘’takes away the ability to clot’’, meaning the prize-winning pooch could not afford to bruise, or he could die of internal bleeding.
Culling was frustrated that it took 10 days to find out what the poison was from the people involved with the ground, and which version they had.
Terah, who endured multiple blood tests, had recovered from the ordeal.
Supplied
The unattached gate where the poison was located.
The active dog had to spend time in a crate, away from his fellow canines, and was walked separately.
‘’Everything had to be done carefully so that he didn’t get himself bruised or knocked, anything that could cause bleeding.’’
Culling was angry that she had never received a satisfactory response: ‘’I’m absolutely furious’’.
‘’I want them to take responsibility and pay his vet bill … that would be nice.’’
The bill was under $1000, but the cost of that bill was ‘’not the point . . . it is the principle’’.
Her dogs were priceless, ‘’they are worth everything in our hearts’’.
The Otago Taieri A & P Society, which owns the ground, did not respond to repeated calls.
Culling said she also became frustrated with the lack of replies from the society, who had engaged lawyers.
But that drawn-out process led to one small victory, she said, with the society later erecting a sign near the poison urging dog owners to ‘Please keep your dogs on a lead while on our property’.
[ad_2]