Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Pet owner takes legal action over ‘weed killer death’
A pet owner has taken a council contractor to court after she claims her dog had to be put down after falling ill from contact with weed killer. Katie Hawkins said she made the agonising decision to put Lola, an Italian greyhound, to sleep after six months of deteriorating sickness.
The animal became ill in March last year when Medway Norse started its herbicide spraying season across open spaces.
The council has since reviewed its use of spraying in the wake of several complaints about pets, especially dogs and some cats, being affected.
Ms Hawkins took her case to the county court in Maidstone to seek compensation for vet bills, but it was thrown out on an insurance technicality that she was not covered. Medway councillors have since agreed not to spray near children’s play areas or at the base of trees and also to dilute the chemical mixture.
But some fear these measures do not go far enough and have called for a total ban on the substance, glyphosate. Ms Hawkins, 40, from Wainscott, initially went on social media when she noticed Lola’s symptoms of swollen eyes, skin burns, damaged liver, loss of fur and dramatic loss of weight. She was overwhelmed with the response from people, some of whom had already had to have their pets put down. Ms Hawkins who had the nine-year-old dog since it was nine weeks old, posted on social media: “To say I am devastated and heartbroken is an understatement. “Glyphosate needs to be banned or at the very least the council needs to let us know if they has sprayed by way of leaflets or signs saying they will be spraying.”
Ms Hawkins, of Frittenden Road, who is registered disabled and unable to work, has had to fork out £3,500 on vets’ fees for Lola’s treatment.
The dog underwent numerous scans and tests before a tumour the “size of a golf ball” was discovered in her mouth. Meanwhile, Medway councillor Simon Curry has launched a petition to ban glyphosate. He said:”the response so far has been overwhelmingly to get rid of it. It is genuinely very worrying.there is evidence that it is harmful, we just don’t now how harmful, especially for humans.”