DOG FED STRAWBERRY FILLED WITH RAZOR BLADES
Woman comes home to find family pet bleeding in pain
A GOLD Coast family is living its own strawberry scandal pain after discovering their dog ate a piece of the fruit stuffed with razor blades.
Benowa woman Debra Fox came home last week to find her dog Baxter bloodied and in pain.
As the bleeding became uncontrollable, Ms Fox took the French bulldog-pug to the emergency vets, who found deep cuts to the inside of his mouth.
Days later Ms Fox found a strawberry in her backyard stuffed with razor blades.
“It had five razor blades in it,” she said.
“If he had eaten the strawberry he would have died.
“Who would do this to an animal for no reason? Just for fun and to cause pain to an animal?”
Police are investigating. The incident comes after needles have been found in strawberries at a number of supermarkets in Queensland, NSW, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has offered a $100,000 reward for information on how the needles got into the strawberries.
One Brisbane man was hospitalised after eating half a needle.
Consumers nationwide have been warned to check their strawberries.
Yesterday, two of New Zealand’s largest food distributors – Foodstuffs and Countdown – said they were stripping shelves of Australian strawberries.
Aldi yesterday announced it would re-stock selected strawberry brands after recalling them at the weekend.
While unrelated to the national scandal, RSPCA Queensland spokesman Michael Beatty said Baxter’s case must be taken seriously as individuals capable of harming animals are capable of harming humans.
“There is no excuse for something like that,” he said.
“To be honest somebody who does that, there’s got to be something going on upstairs that’s not quite right.
“You can’t fathom why somebody would do something like that.”