Police identify poison in food fed to puppy

Tuesday 11 September 2018

Police have identified the poison found in food that had been slid under a local dog owner's garden gate near Mont Millais, in an attempt to poison her one-year-old German Shepherd-cross puppy.

Tia Frame's puppy, Skye, ate some of the food which the Police now believe contained bromadiolone, an anti-coagulant rodenticide, used to kill mice and rats, and which is toxic to mammals.

The pup had been let out in the front garden of her house, on James Road near Mont Millais, around 22:00 on 12 June. A few minutes later, Mrs Frame and her husband went outside and noticed a take-away container had been slid under the gate. It contained a mushy green substance, looking like dog food, with round pellets in it. 

The couple's other dog, three-year-old Teddy, a German Shepherd and Skye's father, luckily didn't eat any of the food.

Shortly after, the couple noticed Skye was drinking lots of water. They took her to the vet who gave Skye tablets to make her sick to make sure the poison was out. Luckily the pup didn't show any more symptoms and made a full recovery. 

Pictured: Experts confirmed the food contained rat poison.

Samples from the food and Skye's stomach were sent to a laboratory in the UK. Experts recently confirmed Mrs Frame and the vets's suspicions that the food had been laced with rat poison. Bromadiolone is described as a potent rodenticide and classified as an extremely hazardous substance in the US.

Mrs Frame explained that police officers only found a partial fingerprint on the container found in the garden. As the fingerprint didn't match any on the police database, Mrs Frame still doesn't know who tried to hurt her pup. 

She said: "Unless someone slips up and said they did it to someone, it’s going to be hard to find out who did it. The worst thing is thinking it’s someone around us, you get suspicious of everything and everyone."