Global Courant 2023-05-02 16:00:04
Bondi, an 8-month-old toy poodle, had just returned from a walk when he started tripping. His head wobbled and soon he could barely stand, so his owner, Colleen Briggs, rushed him to the vet.
The good doctor quickly made a diagnosis: Bondi was stoned.
During his walk, a sniff must have led Bondi to a discarded joint, which he ate.
“He just did what he always did — explore everything, sniff everything,” said Briggs, who began noticing New York City’s pot shops, the frequent smells of marijuana as she circled her Manhattan neighborhood, and the unfinished joints that now lying on sidewalks.
In places like New York City, where the first legal recreational marijuana dispensary opened last year, users can smoke it in the open. As a result, more dogs are encountering – and eating – discarded joints and edibles, sparking alarm among vets and pet owners who blame the surge in poisonings on smokers unaware of the damage they can do from litter .
According to dr. Amy Attas, a New York City veterinarian, marijuana poisonings, which are almost never fatal, were once rare in pets, even as medical pharmacies began to open. Until recently, this often happened at home, when pets ended up in their owners’ supply.
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“The reason we see so many cases is that people are using marijuana on the street and then throwing the unwanted ends off their joints,” Attas said. “And that’s a real problem because dogs will eat those.”
In the first three months of the year, she had already seen six cases, which is about the same number she has treated over the past three decades. Multiply that by the number of vets working in New York City, she said, and the result underscores the growing problem.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said cases are on the rise across the country. Last year there was an 11% increase from the approximately 6,200 reported cases in 2021, and in the past five years there has been a 300% increase.
Colleen Briggs holds her poodle named Bondi while walking through a park near their home on April 6, 2023 in New York. When Bondi fell ill recently, a diagnosis revealed he was likely poisoned after nibbling unfinished marijuana joints. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
“It’s amazing to me how widespread this is now,” Attas said.
Twenty-one states have legalized the recreational use of cannabis, and in major metropolitan areas like New York, there is no escaping the smell of weed in public.
In many cases, owners are unaware that their dogs have eaten a leftover joint until they begin to show signs of toxicity. Even then, owners may not understand what ails their pets.
Sue Scott was in a panic when her 9-month-old fawn pug, Circe, collapsed after a recent walk. Circe’s paws spread out on the floor, her head shook, and she drooled.
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“A million things were going through my head,” said Scott, 68. Marijuana poisoning wasn’t among them. “I never thought that,” she said.
Scott video chatted with Dr. Attas, who said that Circe was showing all signs of being high. She now keeps Circe on a shorter leash, mindful of where she sticks her nose.
“I don’t know if you know pugs — they’re constantly looking for their next bite,” said Scott, who has had four other pugs, none of whom have ever returned home stoned. “But sometimes it’s pretty hard to control them because they’re so fast. They just shoot at something.”
While dogs rarely die from marijuana poisoning, treatment can be expensive, sometimes requiring a trip to the animal emergency room, a stomach pump, and intravenous fluids.
The stress for the patient and his owner is also enormous.
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Bondi has been poisoned three times, the first time last fall, his owner, Briggs, said.
Even as Briggs became more vigilant about walking her pup, she acknowledged that she must have been distracted when Bondi fell ill for the second time. That time she let Bondi ride out his intoxication.
“Walking him… it’s just a really intense situation. So I’m always looking at the ground, and it’s just everywhere now,” she said of the worn-out joints she and Bondi encounter on walks.
“Once,” Briggs said, “I caught him and grabbed him out of his mouth.”
