Six-year-old Briard Leo was a fit and healthy dog until 19 July last year when out for a walk near Valldemossa with his owner Rob Colclough.Colclough contacted the Bulletin after reading about the protests going on in Puerto Pollensa against the fatal poisoning of nine dogs over the past few months, although incidents in the area date back to 2013.
Last July, Colclough, who lives in Establiments was out for a walk with Leo near S’Estaca, Valldemossa when Leo began sniffing around some cone like objects on the trees.
At first he was bitten on the nose by a wasp but within minutes, he began struggling to walk and eventually began shaking as they got back to the car.
What made matters worse was this was on a Saturday evening.
“We called six vets and none were open, we looked on line and eventually found one in Palma but the one which took Leo refused to treat him for poisoning saying it was just heat-stroke (he was 6-years old and was never left alone for a minute), and after he died later that day, they billed 400- euros and refused to show us his treatment sheet. We did see the blood tests and his symptoms were very toxic poisoning-like, with his immune system destroyed, and organs damaged, plus glucose at 10% of normal.
“Sadly they also refused to allow us to be with him at the end, stating company ‘protocol’.
“Ihave since confirmed that someone had been putting down a very fierce and illegal rat poison in the area which is designed to cling to the fur so that the infected rat takes the poison back to its lair and poisons the rest.
“I carried Leo into the vets and for the following three days, my arms were covered in a rash of red spots with white heads,” Colclough said. “I hope the authorities are taking these cases seriously because, next time it could be a young child,” Colclough added. “I’ve made an official complaint but heard nothing so far.”