Koa the Dalmatian had lived with Tom Beck since Beck moved to Puhi in the mid-1990s until the 9-year-old family pet had to be put to sleep Jan. 10. Beck suspects his dog was accidentally poisoned when it accompanied he
Koa the Dalmatian had lived with Tom Beck since Beck moved to Puhi in the mid-1990s until the 9-year-old family pet had to be put to sleep Jan. 10.
Beck suspects his dog was accidentally poisoned when it accompanied he and his brother to Kaua’i County’s Puhi Park a few days before its death.
Beck said Koa, unleashed, played in the grass while the brothers played tennis. He said the dog started vomiting the next day. He took it to the Kaua’i Veterinary Clinic two days later, but the animal couldn’t be saved.
“The dog was presented with respiratory distress and it didn’t respond to normal treatment,” Dr. Michael O. Woltmon of the clinic said Tuesday. “It is a possibility that the dog had some contact with a pesticide and or herbicide.”
But Woltmon said there is no way of testing for pesticides in a dog’s system after a 24-hour period.
“The only way to determine exactly is by getting a urine sample from the dog within 24 hours,” he noted.
Woltmon added that the damage in a case of pesticide poisoning is done by the pesticide spreading through the animal’s system. But the poison itself is usually out of the animal’s body within 24 hours.
He recalled a rash of fatal paraquat poisonings of animals on Kaua’i in the late 1970s and early 1980s, “almost an epidemic,” but he hasn’t seen any cases like Koa’s lately.
Dr. Becky Rhodes, the Kaua’i Humane Society’s executive director, said her organization hasn’t had any calls about dog poisonings recently, either.
“We usually are the first to hear,” Rhodes said. She added she feels “really bad” about Koa’s death.
County officials don’t discount the possibility that Koa’s problems began at the park, where there wasn’t a sign posted advising of a recent pesticide spraying.
“We feel terrible for (the dog owner’s) loss,” said county spokeswoman Beth Tokioka. “This is a sad opportunity to remind dog owners that we do have a leash law.”
She noted that “animals are not allowed in our parks and we do have a leash law,” but if the park has no signs forbidding pets from running free, “we will make sure immediately that is corrected.”
According to Tokioka, Public Works Department officials said the county sprayed Puhi Park with Roundup, a generally safe pesticide. But the spray was applied before Christmas.
Public Works officials also said a warning sign should have been posted after the park was sprayed, alerting pet owners, Tokioka said.
Some county parks have unofficial caretakers from the public who take it upon themselves to weed and spray, but Puhi Park isn’t one of them, Tokioka said.
She said the county is always aware when a park will be sprayed by volunteers.
“Generally,” she said, “we don’t encourage them (volunteers) to spray our parks, but I know of a few instances where volunteers have used Roundup in our parks. We have always known in advance and usually supply the Roundup. In this case, we are not aware of volunteers spraying Puhi Park.”
County officials said they’re having signs prepared that will warn park users when parks are sprayed.
“Whether or not weed spray in the park was the cause of this dog’s illness, we can at least prevent a future incident by taking this action,” Tokioka said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
