The famous Mediterranean port city of Marseille in southern France, which is renowned for its beauty, is facing an ugly problem nowadays: dogs being poisoned by human excrement left behind by drug addicts, and often the main drug causing problems is crack.
Dog owners have increasingly been complaining about the rise in cases of dog poisoning as the result of their animals ingesting human feces containing dangerous residues of illegal drugs in the city’s many parks and beaches.
“While I was returning from a walk, I noticed that my dog’s pupils had become very dilated,” Marseille dog owner Éloïse told the French newspaper Le Parisien about the first time she experienced this problem. “He wasn’t walking straight anymore. I had to carry him to the vet.”
Dogs are known to eat excrement, known as coprophagia, and is often a sign of an underlying problem for the dog, such as anxiety or other issues. However, some dogs do this for no apparent reason.
Éloïse told reporters that her dog, Balto, has since been poisoned several times while on walks after encountering waste left behind by drug addicts. Each time, she has had to rush to the vet to have the dog’s stomach pumped. Fortunately, he has not suffered any aftereffects from these poisonings – at least so far.
Other dog owners in the city told Le Parisien that their pets have similarly experienced such problems on multiple occasions.
Local veterinarian Émilie Cardinaud, who works at the Endoume veterinary clinic in the city, said that her office sees about one such dog poisoning case each month. “Given that there are about 40 veterinary clinics in Marseilles, there must be quite a few such cases,” she pointed out.
Dogs who fall victim to this danger are often brought in while vomiting and experiencing tremors. Dr. Cardinaud said that she believes crack is the drug that is frequently the culprit in such cases.
This problem is not limited to Marseille, however. Parisian veterinarians also confirmed to Le Parisien that they have seen the same sort of cases there.
The famous southern French city has seen a rise in crime and gang activity in recent years, including drug trafficking and drug-related violence.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 7, 2024
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