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Kelowna woman warns dog owners after alleged poisoning at park

Bernadoodle pup Molly is being monitored at Fairfield Animal Hospital
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One year old Molly is being monitored at Fairfield Animal Hospital after drinking from a dog park water bowl. (File)

A woman is warning Kelowna dog owners after her parent’s dog Molly was poisoned during an outing to the Mission Dog Park.

Pam Jacques is looking after her parent’s bernadoodle while they are on vacation.

A fun trip to the park on Sunday (Feb. 19) turned sour when the pair left and Molly began vomiting in the car.

Jacques says while at the dog park she noticed another woman come in with two jugs of water, but no dog.

“I noticed that she poured water into the dog dishes, there was about four or five dog dishes at the park. It looked somewhat strange. I thought maybe she owned a dog, but there was no dog around her. She poured it into the dog dishes and then just stood at the water fountain.”

Molly drank the water along with several other dogs shortly before the pair left.

“I got her in my car and 20 minutes later she was very sick in the back of my car. She was vomiting. I thought she just had an upset stomach and maybe had eaten something at the house, so I monitored her for Sunday and Monday.”

Molly was still lethargic and not acting like herself, so Jacques took her to the vet this morning (Feb. 21).

The vet started treating Molly for an upset stomach, but as an extra precaution some blood work was done.

“He told me that there were toxins in her system… and he couldn’t identify the toxins. Then he wanted to do a urine sample to see if he could figure out where her kidneys are at. He did a urine sample and on the good news her kidneys are diluted. The bad news, her kidneys have been severely injured. She’s at a three in a scale of five for kidney damage.”

“A month ago she had her blood work done as she was getting spayed and she had a clean bill of health.”

Molly has been transferred to the Fairfield Animal Hospital to continue being monitored and hopefully flush out the toxins with an IV.

Although it is unclear if the dog-less woman at the dog park had anything to do with the poisoning, Jacques says the behaviour was very strange.

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Jacques describes the woman as about 5’8, heavyset and between 50 and 60 years old. She had on a blue toque over her strawberry, dark blonde, wavy hair. She also had on a brown jacket, jeans, boots, and sunglasses.

“The Kelowna RCMP have been called, the SPCA has been called, animal control has been called. The RCMP has gone to the dog park. I have removed all the dog dishes, I think it’s a great intention for people to think that it’s good to have dog dishes there, but it just leaves too much for a sinister minded person.”

Jacques says her goal now is have the dog dishes permanently removed. She also plans to put signs up warning other dog owners.

Jacques and Molly were at the dog park between 12:30 and 2 p.m. Jacques says the mystery woman arrived around 1:30 p.m. and was still there when they left.

The Kelowna RCMP would like to speak to this person of interest.

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If any members of the public have information or camera footage which may assist this investigation, please contact Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300 and reference the file number 2023-9797.