Five dogs, including two family pets and three search and rescue ones that were poisoned in Hillsborough Forest Park in Co Down have survived the first night.
They include an elderly Wolfhound Collie mix aged 12 and a Springer Spaniel aged two, plus three dogs who work with search and rescue teams to help vulnerable people who have become lost or injured, Belfast Live reports.
Shauna Harper from K9SARNI stated that she was walking her dog Koda with friend and dog trainer, Alicia Huntley, when their dogs discovered "piles and piles" of left over human food.
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Shauna said: "They dogs are all well trained and were in the off lead area exploring the edges of the trails when they stopped and started eating something on the ground.
"With five dogs there was obvious competition and they were wolfing it down. Koda and Ellie ate the most and Alicia and I had to pull each dog away so one of use could hold them at a safe distance while the rest were removed from the food piles.
"Initially I though they were just chocolate biscuits from a picnic but we discovered six very large piles of food and every single item was toxic for dogs."
After getting back to the car they drove to Cromlyn Vets.
"The dogs were given activated charcoal which forced them to be sick and bring up as much of the food as possible to try to get the toxins out of their bodies as quickly as possible. The poor vets had to examine that and they didn't believe there was any rat poison or anything but human food," Shauna explained.
She stressed that the vets had to act quickly.
Keeping the dogs in for 48 hours of observation would have cost £1,000 per dog and they didn't have £5,000 to hand.
"But as Alicia and I are both dog professionals they allowed us to take the dogs home with more charcoal, knowing that we could observe them overnight," Shauna explained.
The dogs are due to have blood tests next week.
"We both feel very lucky to have spotted the dogs eating the food and we would warn anyone going to Hillsborough Park to be aware of what happened to us.
"I suspect the food piles were left deliberately although it's hard to conceive why anyone would want to attempt to endanger the lives of dogs. There was certainly too much food left for it to have been discarded from a picnic," Shauna added.
