Fears for children expressed as dogs die after swallowing strychnine

Residents in a Clare village are concerned a child will be killed by swallowing strychnine, after about a dozen dogs in the area ingested the deadly poison.

One of the dogs was found dead about 100 yards from Clonlara National School.

Strychnine, which is illegal to possess, was discovered in a number of the dogs after post mortems at the Treaty Veterinary Clinic, Thomondgate, Limerick.

Prior to their deaths, the dogs had been walking on the River Shannon Canal Bank that runs by the picturesque villages of Killaloe, Twomilegate, O’Brien’s Bridge, and Clonlara, towards Ardnacrusha. The walkway is owned by the ESB who have rented surrounding lands to sheep farmers.

A spokesperson at Killaloe Garda Station said: “We have gardaí dealing with a number of incidents.”

Head nurse at Treaty Veterinary Clinic, Tracy Marlow, said: “(People) were giving out because it was so near the school. In the last two months we had three (dogs). They were all medium-sized dogs. They were all dead on arrival.”

“The owners had taken them for a walk (in Clonlara) and when they got home they just started showing symptoms of twitching and nervousness. Then they collapsed and were dead within 15 minutes.”

Clonlara publican Eugene O’Shea, whose Siberian Husky died from the poison, said locals were fearful a child would be hurt or killed if they came into contact with the deadly poison.