A precious family pet died this month after having been on a walk with his family in Port Sunlight River Park in Wirral when the dog yelped in pain. According to the Wandsworth Times, the Staffordshire bull terrier named Ella died a few weeks after the heartbreaking incident.
After Ella shrieked out in pain, her 61-year-old owner returned home and realized Ella had a blister that had been doubling in size. Her owner quickly rushed the 13-year-old dog to the veterinarian hospital where it was discovered the dog’s injury had been caused by the giant hogweed plant commonly referred to as “Britain’s most dangerous plant.”
The blister on Ella continued to grow exponentially in size.
That was when they [veterinarians] said three days later, that’s definitely giant hogweed. We can prescribe pain killers but there’s no cure for this. We’re just going to have to wait – you’ll know when the time is right, and that’s when the pain becomes too much for Ella and we have to say goodbye.
Stuart Good
Tragically the blister continued to grow until it covered almost half the side of Ella, and then it began to bleed and leak. Ella was loved so much that Good wanted to make her comfortable as possible and left her on his bed. A few weeks later, he made the difficult decision to end Ella’s suffering, and now he wants to warn others to be careful and be on the lookout for the poisonous plants.
Not only is the plant deadly to dogs, it can cause burns on humans when it comes in contact with the skin; the sap causes the blisters and the symptoms can continue to reoccur for years.
We do have Common Hogweed which is a common native plant and is often confused for Giant Hogweed – which is a non-native invasive species. Common Hogweed does not cause any issues to the public or their pets and can often be found in our parks in meadows, woodlands, along hedgerows, verges and roadsides.
We also have signs on the site that state dog owners should keep their dogs on a lead and stick to the paths to help preserve ground nesting birds and to be respectful of the site…
The Land Trust
How to identify Giant hogweed:
Giant hogweed is an invasive plant choking out native species along Europe and North America. It is especially plentiful along riverbanks . Giant hogweed is also known as cartwheel flower, giant cow parsnip, hogsbane and giant cow parsley. It looks like several other plants, however mature giant hogweed plants are large.
What sets this plant apart from other plants resembling it, are purplish-red spots on its stem paired with coarse bristles. Some other plants resembling this have fine reddish spots but none of the lookalikes have both.
For more information and what you can do if you touch it, please click here.
(Photos Land Trust, Pixabay)
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