Dog owner warns of toxic avocado pits in Point Pleasant Park

A Halifax dog owner is warning others to watch out for an odd toxic danger to dogs: avocado pits in Point Pleasant Park.

After an apparent bird watcher scattered several pits around the park last week, Lisa Breen’s dog Harlow picked one up and became seriously ill, leading to a vet bill and down time for the six-month old, sixkilogram mixed Pekingese.

“She’s great now, but she was not feeling her best for about two days,” Breen said Friday.

“The day that it happened, it took a few hours to kind of process through. We went to bed, and at 4 a.m. (Tuesday), she got violently ill for about three hours.

“That was kind of rough on her.

“It took about two full days to recoup and feel back to normal, after she got some medication and fluids.”

Harlow’s vet told Breen that avocado pits contain a toxin, and the green part is also harmful to a variety of animals.

After the incident, Breen and her boyfriend went back to the park and found several scattered avocados.

“It was pits and broken up pieces and the skin,” Breen said. “Clearly, this person had a lot of pits saved up and then was tossing them around.”

Breen’s boyfriend saw a man dressed in a Tilley hat and sunglasses in the park, dropping the avocado pieces.

“My boyfriend actually stopped him, and said, ‘what is it that you’re throwing there?’”

“He (the avocado dropper) said that birds like avocado pits, and said, ‘I’m trying to get birds to come around so I can take pictures,’” Breen recounted.

Halifax Regional Municipality communications adviser Tiffany Chase confirmed that park staff found avocado pits near one of the park monuments, and cleaned them up.

“They are aware of one reported incident from a park goer who advised his dog had gotten sick from eating avocado pits,” Chase said. “We encourage residents to call us if there are future incidents.” Harlow’s vet bill was $200. A watch commander at Halifax Regional Police said no reports had been received to date.

“If a complaint was received it would be investigated,” the email response said.