BOSTON (WHDH) - One moment, Greg Sutcliffe’s Golden lab Bucky and his brother-in-law’s puppy, Shep, were running through the neighborhood, the next — they were laying lifeless on the floor.
“The puppy was in the kitchen … it was worse than a seizure, it was like his entire body was frozen,” Sutcliffe recalled, adding that his daughter was screaming and crying.
The family rushed both dogs to an Animal Hospital in Woburn, where Bucky had to put down after it was determined both dogs had ingested poison.
Lisa Barker knows the pain he was going through. She tried saving her dog, Nora, after it ate rat poison at someone’s house.
“She had gotten into rat poison, specifically the square bricks,” she said. Her dog was ultimately euthanized.
Dr. Kiko Bracker the director of emergency care at the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center is no stranger to these incidents.
“It has to be eaten by rodents so it’s relatively appetizing. The bright blue bricks that you sometimes see at the hardware store, they’re perfectly willing to put those in their mouth and swallow them,” he said. “By the time you see illness it’s too late, the toxins are already taking effect.”
When managing a rat problem with poison, people are being urged to be mindful of children and other animals that can get into the substance. Other options include storing your garbage in a tight-fitting plastic container and make sure to remove any unused debris from your property that rats could use for shelter.
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