Officers suspect dogs being fed P

Here's a new take on the term drug dog. Concerned dog control officers believe some pet owners may be feeding their dogs P to make them more aggressive.

They say several dogs have been put down recently after exhibiting some inexplicably manic behaviour, such as running at speed into concrete walls and being unpredictably skittish.

The incidents have led some to suspect that owners are lacing their dogs' food with meth-amphetamine to make them more aggressive and dog control staff are being warned to be careful on the beat.

Ken Thomas, the Far North Regional Council's chief dog control officer, said the dogs had not been tested for P. But given their extraordinary behaviour and the place where they were picked up, there could be little other explanation, he said.

"They were definitely behaving in a way that was not fitting with dog behaviour. Looking at the people that they come from, it is likely they were fed P. These are the kind of people that don't care about other people, let alone their dogs."

Mr Thomas said he had made his dog control officers aware of the development but said they were all trained to treat every situation with caution.

Another dog control officer said he had talked to some locals who had boasted of giving their animals P but he did not want to talk about it for fear of giving others "ideas".

Former police officer and long-time Bay of Islands and Kaitaia SPCA inspector Jim Boyd said it was possible that a dog could die under the influence of pure methamphetamine. However, he said the owners were probably putting themselves more at risk than their pets.

"Anything that acts on a human's metabolism acts 10 times faster on a dog's [metabolism]. It would make them extremely unpredictable and hard to control. I would say it'd be more dangerous for an owner to give a dog P."

Mr Boyd said it was unlikely the practice would become common because the street value of the drug was so high. If dogs were high on P, it was possible they were fed traces of residue or given an occasional dose "for kicks".

He said he had come across more dogs under the influence of cannabis from secondhand smoke - which made them easy to deal with during a drugs raid.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY