Cody Proud never expected a walk along the river on a snowy April afternoon would end with the death of his six-month-old puppy, Ruby. They were walking on a friend’s family farm on April 8 when he lost sight of Ruby, but in the private offleash area, Proud wasn’t concerned. When Ruby came back with a deer leg, Proud still thought he had nothing to worry about. But within half an hour of the walk, near Range Road 53 and east of the gas plant, Ruby was struck with full body seizures. “We ended up at North Calgary Vet Hospital and they weren’t able – they couldn’t do anything,” Proud said. Ruby was given five anti-seizure medications – the only thing stopping her from convulsing. Proud and his family, faced with little options, opted to have the puppy put down. The cause of Ruby’s ailment wasn’t due to the leg itself, Proud later discovered, but what the leg was coated in. After Ruby died, Proud hired the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to perform an autopsy, costing him roughly $600, and the results pointed to one thing – strychnine poisoning. The chemical, strychnine, is a predacide often mixed into grains and used by farmers to kill gophers and other rodents. It’s regulated by the federal government. Stomach contents from the body were sent to Michigan State University, which confirmed Strychnine. Currently, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is consulting Canadians on whether to end the use of strychnine for ground squirrel control due to effects on non-target animals. The consultation is open until Sept. 27. It can be accessed at www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/consumer-product-safety/pesticides-pest-management/public/consultations/proposed-re-evaluation-decisions/2018/strychnine.html But Proud said his friend’s farm had never used the chemical before – he suspects someone dumped the deer leg in the area to kill coyotes. Now he’s speaking out in the hopes of raising awareness to other dog owners in the community. “People are walking their dogs out there,” Proud said. “We just want other dog owners to be cautious and maybe if someone reads this who is misusing strychnine this will prevent further deaths.” “If someone around town is blindly poisoning for coyotes, it’s only a matter of time before another dog is put through a terrible, painful death.”
