RSPCA says nine pet poisoning incidents reported in Merseyside last year

Merseyside Police have re-opened the park area in Belle Vale where two dogs died from eating an 'unknown white substance' after a specialist team completed a clear up operation on Wednesday.

Police received a report from a veterinary surgery at around 2 pm on Monday that a number of dogs had been brought to the surgery after falling ill after ingesting the substance. Two of the dogs later died, one is seriously ill, and a fourth one continues to be treated.

The parkland near Childwall Valley Road was cordoned off and the public were asked to avoid the area but the scene has now been stood down. The white substance has been sent for forensic analysis and Merseyside Police are continuing to investigate where it came from.

The RSPCA say there were nine poison-related incidents reported to them in the Merseyside area in 2023, though the Veterinary Poisons Information Service say cases like this particular one in Liverpool are rare.

Nicola Robinson, Head of Veterinary Poisons Information Service, said: "It's such a worry to owners, but in actual fact poisoning like this, where a dog comes across something which is highly toxic and in fact fatal, is very unusual.

"That's not something that we come across very often. I would say probably at the Poison Centre, we get reports probably twice a year or something like that, so it's not common. It's incredibly bad luck and devastating for those dogs and their owners."

• Watch the video above for more from Nicola Robinson and what to do if your dog has eaten something it shouldn't.