Anne-Marie Stevens believes her puppy Paul ate something poisonous on a walk and spent her postcode lottery winnings on her dog in vain as he died after falling ill
A dog lover was forced to spend her £13k lottery windfall trying in vain to save the life of her poisoned XL Bully puppy.
Anna-Marie Stevens, 51, spent her postcode lottery winnings on her dog Paul who she suspects ate something poisonous during a walk. She said more than 20 sandwich bags had been found with dog food and biscuits at Kismet Park, Canvey, Essex, since Paul died last December.
Her normally healthy puppy fell ill shortly after she and husband Nigel were told they had won the huge lottery sum. She was told by vets that they were "convinced" that Paul had ingested poison and had to fork out for over £13,342 worth of vet treatment – just £100 more than her lottery win.
She said: "I used all my winnings from the postcode lottery, and we lost our dog, he was beautiful. We were told the only place we could go to a vet in Basildon that cost £10,000.
“We tried all week to save him but he had chronic kidney failure, we don’t know exactly what he ate, but it caused a lot of damage. Vets are convinced it was poison, I don’t want anyone going through the heartache that we went through.
"I would have taken my family for a nice holiday if Paul had not fallen ill. But I would have re-mortgaged my house if there had been a chance of saving him."
Paul was only nine months old when he passed away from kidney failure and Anna-Marie said she could not afford medical insurance for him following the breed's ban.
Although he had public liability insurance through Dog's Trust, Anna-Marie said that even before the ban, medical insurance for an XL Bully was more than her mortgage. Medical insurance for an XL Bully is only available through a specialist provider, at a much higher premium than another breed.
Anna-Marie had to borrow from family members to pay for his vet treatment before she was told she had won the postcode lottery, allowing her to pay the money back.
She said it is unclear whether poison had been left intentionally in the park to target dogs, or whether Paul had ingested poison that could have been left out to target rats.
However, she did raise concerns over the number of sandwich bags with dog food in that she said had been found in the park by her and her neighbour.
Anna-Marie said: “Several times at Kismet Park, I have found sandwich bags containing dog food and you never know what else is in there.
"It might have been for rats, who knows, but it's killing animals and it might kill children next. We're absolutely gutted about the death of our dog and forever will be."
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