Owners of Milo, a beautiful four year-old labrador, were devasted when he died an agonisingly painful death after eating slug pellets.
Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS) show there were 267 cases of metaldehyde poisoning in dogs last year. No doubt there have been several more incidences with dogs and other household pets – and possibly children? – that have not been associated with the slug pellets and therefore not reported.
When asked about the specific incident with Milo, West Yorkshire Trading Standards officer Bob Unwin said: ‘We have sent a sample of the product to the laboratory to find out exactly what it contains. Based on the results, we will decide whether to approach Homebase to see if the labelling can be improved.’
Is this enough? We think not!
We would like to see an immediate ban on poisenous slug pellets. They are not necessary. There are lots of safe alternatives including smearing vaseline on pots, small bowls of beer etc. Gardeners need educating – they don’t need poisenous products!
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I look after my daughter’s Chocolate Lab during the day and she will try to eat anything she can sniff out, like food put on the bird table, crumbs thrown out for the birds and recently, yes, a dead rabbit found during a walk in our local woods.
But this is normal Lab behaviour.
Let’s write to Defra and demand an immediate ban on slug pellets, in the same way that we did when we heard that some gardeners and allotment holders were experiencing failed crops and poisoned plots after using horse manure that had allegedly been contaminated by a herbicide.
Bob Wiseman, who writes our monthly ‘grow your own organic vegetables’, advises:
“Some years ago there was a product on the market for slug control based on crushed Cockle shells of which you can get a bucket load from Leigh. Others that work are coffee grounds avilable from Starbuck for free if you ask nicely.”
Bob is going to include more slug control info in next months article.