Pony could have died after eating dog poo bag

A pony in Scone had a brush with death when he munched on a discarded dog poo bag.

The black plastic bag passed right through 11-year-old Archie the Exmoor pony, but his owner Rachel McLean (22), who found the evidence in his field, realised he might not have been so lucky.

Rachel now wants dog owners to discard of their pet’s waste properly rather than put other animals at risk.

She said: “Ingested plastic can be fatal to livestock and wildlife. It’s a miracle he passed out a length of torn plastic about 70cms long without it twisting round his gut.”

Rachel, an optical consultant who is on furlough, keeps two ponies in a rented field at the top of Milk Boy’s Walk in Scone, a footpath popular with dog walkers.

She thinks someone dropped a pocketful of unused bags and the plastic blew over the fence into the livery field at Pictstonhill Farm, Scone.

“I have had more time since being off work, so I spend two or three hours a day at the moment with the ponies,” she told the PA.

“Ordinarily I’m checking on them twice a day and I pick up manure from the field daily to keep it clean.

“Archie has been funny for the last few days, kind of feral. He lost his field mate last week, so knowing he was likely to be stressed by this, I didn’t think too much of it when he took his food but didn’t want to hang around to be touched.

“Now I think it was because he was feeling sore inside.

“Archie is the best thing that’s happened to me, he’s like my baby. He’s a cheeky rascal, pretty greedy, but I love him very much.

“I have him insured to the max, there’s nothing we would not have done to try and save him. Thank goodness he survived having a long piece of plastic travel right through his gut.

“After this scary thing, I want to warn everybody about the unfortunate consequences of discarded poo bags.

“There are four or so farms right nearby with lots of other grazing horses. It could so easily have killed one, we were really lucky Archie passed it in one piece.”

Rachel described a growing problem with bags: “Sadly with the increased footfall due to the virus, I have seen a lot more poo bags left and have been picking them up myself. I believe people just don’t think about what could happen to what they either drop or leave for someone else to find.

“I’m just trying to get the message out for people to be more careful and clear up after themselves.”

Meanwhile, Perthshire residents have been urged to get a picture if they see evidence of dog fouling.

Neighbourhood Watch Scotland supports Keep Scotland Beautiful and has begun this year’s #TurdTag campaign.

The organisation asks members of the public to help it record where dog poo is being left across neighbourhoods in Scotland.

Residents have until Monday to email their location and local authority to cleanup@keepscotlandbeautiful.org for the campaign.