Dog safety warning.

My friend has (had)5 dogs as of yesterday. two are now dead, one maybe recovering, one is touch and go and on a watching brief and the other is likely to recover (nothing is guaranteed)

They get run in the Ashley river every morning for their daily exercise. The finger (the bloods) is pointing squarely at toxins in that river. Environment Canterbury already knew of this condition existing and warns against dogs in the water. They just couldn't be arsed making sure the public is widely aware the water is being poisoned by land users. You have to go looking.

Keep your dogs the fuck away from that river and any Nth Canterbury river mid/low country near farmland.

For fuck sake how could Environment Canterbury not act on the information to warn the public. Sympathies to your friend.

That is terrible. Losing a dog is hard, but almost losing three.... I'm interested to hear what toxins the tests turned up, and whether further action will be taken.

The waterways down there will be fucked in the next generation. Or we could fuck this generation by telling the farmers and industry to stop. I apologise for the profanity, but it seems apt.

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Originally Posted by inglishill

The waterways down there will be fucked in the next generation. Or we could fuck this generation by telling the farmers and industry to stop. I apologise for the profanity, but it seems apt.

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So I take it you know who/what is actually releasing the toxins in to the water?

Thats sad.

Plenty about it here. Ashley is named as a risk river.

https://www.ecan.govt.nz/your-region...y/toxic-algae/

Says warnings are only posted when certain public health thresholds are met.

As a long term resident of the area I can say most locals are well aware of the toxic blume risk to Kuris.Every year from Xmas onwards multiple dogs get tipped up when the Ashley flow reduces and the water temp increases leading to the blumes.Warnings are posted to the community about the risk to dogs and infants swimming.
The only unusual thing about this case is it's occurred pre Xmas during good flow during this green cool spring.Makes me a little sus about the source of the toxin.
Cyanobacteria toxic blumes only occurred in the Ashley catchment following the conversion from dry stock farming to dirty diarying around 20years ago.Previous you could safely go night swimming with no risk.In my opinion Ecan consented to the largest eco disaster in Enzed to allow diarying on the light soils of the Canty plains.They got blood on their hands

There are various long term studies that have been done by university and govt that show the degradation of the waterways and the reasons for them. If you are concerned and you do want to inform yourself, go look it all up. You can write letters to the council, govt and Iwis asking for these things as well. Talk to trout fishermen, they are the ones who see the degradation over years. - in reply to 7mmwsm

When toxins are mentioned it doesn't mean that they are man made poisons. The toxic algae blooms are fairly common and well known around this area. I won't let my dog near any river without having a decent look first.

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Originally Posted by bluebaiter222

As a long term resident of the area I can say most locals are well aware of the toxic blume risk to Kuris.Every year from Xmas onwards multiple dogs get tipped up when the Ashley flow reduces and the water temp increases leading to the blumes.Warnings are posted to the community about the risk to dogs and infants swimming.
The only unusual thing about this case is it's occurred pre Xmas during good flow during this green cool spring.Makes me a little sus about the source of the toxin.
Cyanobacteria toxic blumes only occurred in the Ashley catchment following the conversion from dry stock farming to dirty diarying around 20years ago.Previous you could safely go night swimming with no risk.In my opinion Ecan consented to the largest eco disaster in Enzed to allow diarying on the light soils of the Canty plains.They got blood on their hands

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Is that where you write about all your bedroom antics?

Come on fellas. Play nice please. Don't go chucking labels at each other and please don't throw shit at other sections of our community.we ALL have good n bad in our lives.its sad someone has lost Thier dogs,very sad. Playing blame game won't bring them back.

Sorry to hear about the dogs :(
The Manawatu river gets a bit of algae in Summer too but usually during low flow and high heat. I used to take my Rotties to the river in Summer but somehow always got lucky since back then I didn't even know algae was a thing in rivers. I only take my dogs to the beach these days, but then that's not too far away

Similar issue has happened on the local Tukituki river when the bacteria gets bad in low levels. Sad how brutal it is on dogs.

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Originally Posted by rugerman

Sorry to hear about the dogs :(
The Manawatu river gets a bit of algae in Summer too but usually during low flow and high heat. I used to take my Rotties to the river in Summer but somehow always got lucky since back then I didn't even know algae was a thing in rivers. I only take my dogs to the beach these days, but then that's not too far away

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Took my dogs to the beach at Awatoto a couple of years back. Ran along beach and into surf. Great. Next day the dogs were covered in ticks. Out with the Ripcord. Never taken them back.

Wow ticks, never thought you would get them at the beach. I did see 1000s of baby blue bottles washed up for a couple of weeks so kept the dogs out of the water then just in case

We have ticks in the sand flats we run the dog in out here in north Nelson , spring and summer …barstard things they are, but I dose the lad accordingly and fingers crossed we have the problem controlled.

It not just cattle country with algae blooms , our local river the Matai runs through native forst , then forestry , then residential, we have warnings for dogs from now until autumn. In all catchments.

Then in some years we have similar blooms in the sounds warm water and the right conditions , shuts down the shellfish harvest for months

Recreational use ie fishing, boating etc has been documented as a significant spreader of algae between waterways. Failure to clean and dry before going to another spot spreads stuff. The north island currently has golden clams spreading rapidly.

This year is apparently the warmest on record. That could be why it's occurred before Christmas. It hit 30 degrees in Carterton today. And it frosted 2 weeks ago.