If a dog came into MY garden and ate rat poison…. Am I held responsible?

[PinkBump2022]

If a neighbour let hers dog roam and it then comes into my garden and eats rat poison and something bad happens to the dog, am I responsible for its death or the owner… or nobody?

Yes because you have a duty of care to visitors to your property even when they are not invited. A dog is regarded as property but I don't think that matters you have not provided a safe environment

But did they put it in a special box that only rats/mice can access? Because I see rat poison boxes outside hospitals and restaurants, etc but they’re special sealed boxes with a little hole.

So you’d be expected to use something like this.

They would have done it in such a way that other animals could not accidentally eat it.

Rat poison should be in an impregnable box designed to hold poison.

They put loose rat poison pellets in your garden where any animal could eat them?

Should say your household insurance might cover losses

From a legal perspective, it depends on how the dog got into your garden. Was it a one off or was the dog regularly loose, away from its owner's control?

You should absolutely not put rat poison out in your garden where other animals could access it unless your garden is also cat proof which given the agility of cats is highly unlikely. Legally I don't know where you would stand on either score but morally and as a human you can't deliberately risk killing cats and dogs in a horrific manner.

You are unlikely to kill a cat with rat poison. They are too cautious.

They struggle to deliberately poison feral cats in Australia.

Obviously if you have to use rat poison it should only be accessible to rats and mice, but why should the OP dog proof her garden if she doesn’t have a dog?

I had a cat eat rat poison once, least that’s what the vet said it was. Lots of internal bleeding but the cat survived after a lengthy stay at the vets.

We live rural and often have to put poison out, in the appropriate boxes. The garden is fenced, and i don't feel it's my responsibility to do any more to prevent dogs entering my private land.it is surely down to owners to keep control of their dogs and be responsible for them.

This

If it's in an appropriate box nothing else should get to it anyway. Surely leaving rat poison where any animal or bird could get to it is irresponsible.

No one should be leaving rat poison in a place that can easily be accessed by other pets / wildlife.

Op do note a dog la death from poison would be discovered by the vet

if I suspected you poisoned my dog legal worries would be least of your concern because I wouldn’t go down the legal route

I'm also wondering whether this is something that's happened or whether it's a hypothetical..
If hypothetical then it's a strangely specific scenario with no mention of potential harm to cats who are likely to roam in strangers gardens!

I just want to say, we had a rat issue, poison box that was child / pet / rain / whatever proof. It was buried behind the rat hole.

I went into the garden and ddog had a bait block in his mouth. I'm guessing a fox or rat had pulled the bait out somehow. Thankfully all was fne with ddog after a call with the vet to poison control.

Are you worried she's going to poison your dog?

Please don't use rat poison. Our neighbours put some down and a rat was dying on our lawn. It looked to be in agony and was taking hours to die so DH went out there with a spade and finished it - not easy for him, and awful having to distract the dch for ages. No animal deserves that kind of cruelty.

If a dog can get to it then a hedgehog can and they're an endangered species. I hope this is completely hypothetical and you own no poison

Is anyone else wondering if this is a reverse? Maybe the OP is the one with the poisoned dog.

This is so upsetting 😞
Sadly some people think that labelling an animal as "vermin" means throwing any sort of ethical treatment out the window.
It doesn't make sense to me at all..if it's cruel it's cruel no matter which animal is suffering 🤷🏽‍♀️😔

I don't think so because a) she hasn't come back and b) she would have phrased the bit about "letting her dog roam" differently.