Immediate steps to take:
1. If the animal is still alive, it should receive veterinary care as an emergency. if possible. Avoid handling the animal or any suspected poisoned material with bare hands.
2. If the animal is dead, the body should be disposed of with care. If you want to identify the cause of death, or for safe disposal, take it to the vet.
3. Look for any traces of the poison. If you find any, put them in a container without handling them with your bare hands. This might help the vet to identify the substance used. Any remaining poison should be removed to avoid further harm to non-target animals.
4. Note down as many details of the situation as you can, especially how the animal might have been poisoned and where and when the poisoning has happened. The information should be provided to the vet, also posted on social media platforms on the internet, in order to warn animal owners of the danger in the area.
And then:
The Law for the Protection of Animals is clear. Except in circumstances allowed for by law in an animal's best interests, it is against the law to kill animals, or cause them harm or pain in any way (DIO DRUGI OSNOVNE ODREDBE O ZAŠTITI ŽIVOTINJA Zabranjeni postupci u svrhu zaštite životinja Članak 5. (1) Zabranjeno je životinje usmrćivati, nanositi im bol, patnju i ozljede te ih namjerno izlagati strahu i bolestima protivno odredbama ovoga Zakona.)
If you decide to take action against the culprits or suspected culprits, you will have to:
1. Report the poisoning to the police, the local veterinarian and the State Inspectors with full details of the timing and location.
2. Provide proof that poison was the cause of death: an autopsy of the body is required, which is organized by the vet..
3. The procedure is as follows: first of all, before the case is lodged, an application has to be made to the Court for the vet to organise the autopsy, in order to validate the evidence - without this Court order, the legal action will fail. The Court order and subsequent veterunary report are essential parts of the evidence which will be presented in the case.
4. Such cases are usually presented as being "against unknown perpetrators". If you have evidence incriminating certain people, they can be named as suspects.
Weigh up the pros and cons
There are more 'cons' than 'pros'. Legal action is likely to take a long time. Individuals or groups raising a case have to commit a lot of time and resources to it. All the evidence and possible proofs have to be gathered very precisely and accurately, including police and veterinary reports, witness accounts and any supporting evidence. A competent lawyer has to prepare it all in a coherent legal form to lodge in Court.
One would hope that a successful action resulting in punishment according to the law might act as a deterrent to others. However, there have been very few successful cases of this kind in Croatia to date. The punishments laid down in the law are anyway generally considered too mild. Back in 2012 the Association 'Animal Friends' ('Prijatelji životinja') proposed that a dedicated police force for the protection animals should be set up to provide quicker and more immediate action against people transgressing the animal protection law. More recently in June 2023 the Association lobbied the Ministry of Justice for changes in the Criminal Law (Kazneni zakon) to make punishments for animal cruelty more effective, with more demands from other animal protection associations lodged in September 2023 (links in Croatian).
Another factor to bear in mind is that if you are resident in a small place your legal action will inevitably arouse bad feelings and probably cause your neighbours to turn against you.
Why do animals get poisoned?
Poisons are widely used to control 'vermin' of all kinds. Rats, mice and slugs are the usual (legal) targets, but on Hvar it is common practice for hunters to spread poisons around the environment to cull the martens and other wild animals which might damage the game birds and their nests. (Note: the European pine marten (kuna zlatica) is a strictly protected species, but the poison is left in open spaces, regardless.)
Rodenticides commonly used in Croatia include products based on the active ingredients Brodifacoum and Bromadiolone, both of which are now banned in the EU as 'plant protection products', but are still allowed as biocides, at least for the time being.
Aluminium phosphide is another deadly substance used in rat poisons as well as insecticides, acaricides and as a fumigant. The most commonly used limacide on Hvar is Pužomor, whose active ingredient is Metaldehyde. It is highly toxic, not only to slugs and snails, but also animals and humans.
In practice, bans do not have much meaning. For instance, Ratimor rodenticide products were banned as 'plant protection products' in July 2013, and some time later were excluded from the Ministry of Health list of permitted biocides (see our article 'Pesticides, Laws and Permits' for an explanation of the pesticide categories). In January 2019 I chanced upon a man buying a number of large packets of Ratimor poison in a place which definitely was not authorized to sell such pesticides. Demand on Hvar seems to be high, so perhaps it is not surprising if there is also a black market for them.
Casual attitudes to poisons.
Rat poison is distributed free of charge to Hvar islanders in flimsy containers without adequate safety instructions or practical safeguards. In the past it was even stated by the implementing firm that animals other than rats and mice would not touch it, because it was treated with an aroma which repelled them. This was untrue: some friends in Pitve came home one day to find their young dogs dead after eating the poison which the distributors had left on a windowsill; I once witnessed young cats eating the poison in an inaccessible courtyard.
For a long time the poison was distributed indiscriminately to households in cellophane packets and left all over the place, once even on my car! It came in granule form together with a tablet intended for septic tanks which had no antidote. Nowadays the rat poison is given to householders who want it in person, packed in thin cardboard boxes which disintegrate if used outdoors.
The practice of distributing rodenticides to householders on Hvar is surprising, as the regulations which govern the pest control programme specifically state in Article 20 that poisonous substances must not be given to end-users of the compulsory pest control measures for use without control. (Pravilnik o načinu provedbe obvezatne dezinfekcije, dezinsekcije i deratizacije članak 20.)
Examples of irresponsible carelessness include:
- a householder in Pitve throwing half-empty boxes of rat poison into a garden which was accessible to any passing animal (or child);
- a worker from the pest control firm casually lobbing large cubes of deadly rat poison around the Vehicle Testing Centre in Vrbanj and across the land beside the building, where clients often wait with their dogs;
- housekeepers placing sachets of poison around properties, but forgetting to remove them or warn of their presence before the owners and their dogs arrived;.
Not only in Croatia. Accidental poisonings can happen anywhere. A friend in Austria went through a frightening experience in a restaurant, where her dog chewed through a plastic container of no less than three rat poisons under the table; emergency veterinary treatment was administered immediately, but the owner still had an agonising wait for a month until it was certain that there were no ill-effects, as one of the three poisons was slow-acting.
Changes can and should be made.
1. Poisons should not be seen as the best answer to controlling pests. Poisons have significant disadvantages:
i. their effect on pest populations is only temporary, as it is impossible to kill all the targeted creatures.
ii. frequent use engenders resistance, for instance producing extra-large 'super-rats';
iii. collateral damage can happen, poisoning unintended victims;
iv. they may be used illegitimately against creatures other than those allowed in law.
2. More control should be exerted over the distribution of all chemical poisons, especially those which are toxic for animals and humans.
3. Potentially fatal poisons including raticides, insecticides and limacides sold in supermarkets and shops of any kind should not be displayed on open shelves.
4. There should be prominent warning signs highlighting the possible ill-effects of such poisons, the current labelling requirements are inadequate.
5. Sales of all chemical poisons should be controlled, with records kept of buyers, their usage and how they dispose of packaging.
Finding a positive approach
Ingested poisons cause unbearable suffering to animals, as to humans. If your pet is poisoned, whether accidentally or deliberately, it is natural to feel angry and to want the perpetrators to be punished. It is also natural to be afraid of the tragedy being repeated. Revenge will not bring your pet back; it probably will not prevent future poisonings; it may lead to repercussions against you, your family, your property, and any other animals in your care.
Try to keep as calm as possible, and work out the most positive way of dealing with the situation. Fear and anger are negative emotions. Negativity breeds negativity and can be harmful to your mental and physical health. Everyone has to deal with personal tragedies in their own way. One possible positive reaction is to feel pity for the benighted poisoners who have no understanding of the interdependence between ourselves and all other beings on the earth. From feeling pity it is easier to move towards full forgiveness for the wrong done to you and your animal(s). Forgiveness from the heart marks the pathway to shaking off the negativity which otherwise can poison your mind long after the tragic event. Another way to give the experience a positive purpose is to campaign for better control over the sale and use of all the available poisons, and for stronger legal measures to deter would-be animal poisoners.
˙© Vivian Grisogono MA(Oxon) 2024.
