Pooch poisoning fears

Suburb on alert after man dumps unknown liquid in backyard

A CONCERNED Glenvale resident has warned pet owners to watch their backyards after her dog was poisoned by an unknown substance on Friday morning.

Tamika Brettell said she was about to leave for work on Friday morning when she heard her dog Barry bark and saw an unknown man tipping liquid into her neighbour’s garden.

“I watched him for a bit as he walked around the corner to his vehicle. He chucked the bottle into the back of his car and walked off,” Ms Brettell said.

“I went back inside to check on my dog and found there was liquid all over my fence and on the ground.

“My poor pup was running around licking his mouth and rubbing it on the grass – he was clearly very agitated.”

Ms Brettell quickly phoned her local vet, who advised her to flush the dog’s mouth with water.

“The liquid smelt like a mixture of fuel and weed killer,” Ms Brettell said.

“Luckily due to his size he hadn’t had enough to cause too much damage.”

Ms Brettell posted the incident to the Toowoomba Crime Alerts and Discussion Facebook page, where her post accrued more than 120 comments in a matter of hours.

“Please make sure to not only check for bait/meat but also liquids,” Ms Brettell said in the post.

“(My dog) is not feeling well, he’s drinking a lot of water.

“I (was) panicked all morning. I had to shovel dirt from our backyard out, due to it being covered in this liquid.”

Her post was met with horror and disgust from others in the community, the incident occurring a week after a spate of dogs were poisoned with baited meat in Brisbane.

“We have dogs all around us here, 6am the barking starts right outside our bedroom window. It’s annoying, but there is no way on this earth I would do anything to hurt those dogs,” one person commented.

“Our dog was poisoned three months ago and died,” another person added.

Ms Brettell told The Chronicle her dog Barry has made a full recovery and she would file a report with council.