Are white powders being laid down to poison dogs? Fact Check

Messages circulating social media warn dog users to watch out for white powder because it is dog poison that if ingested will be fatal to dogs within a handful of days.

MOSTLY FALSE

Examples as they appear on social media can be seen below.

A warning for dog owners;
Guys I pass you this notice!!!
If you see trees that are like this with this white powder, do not let your dogs come closer because it is poison. the dogs smell it they are impregnated in the nose and then they pass the tongue, die of bleeds at two or three days,
Very careful and please spread the message!!!

FRIENDS WITH DOGS, if you see trees or posts with white powder like this BEWARE keep you animals far away, people with dogs that have smelled and licked their noses afterwards which had caused internal hemorrhage and die within 2/3 days. Please share and make everyone aware

The above warnings began their travels across social media during the second half of 2014, and were likely in response to a handful of complaints in Greenwich, London during September 2014 of a suspicious white powder found near trees in Greenwich Park that had been attributed to a number of dogs becoming sick.

However the connection between the white powder and subsequent cases of dogs becoming sick was unsubstantiated and no dogs were reported to have become fatally ill. What’s more, the source of the suspicious white powder soon became known as a local jogging club came forward and explained that the powder was actually flour intended to map out jogging routes.

Flour isn’t inherently poisonous to dogs, though like a number of different substances, a minority of dogs can be intolerant or allergic to it. Incidentally, flour laid out by local jogging clubs has in the past also been mistaken for covert symbols used by criminals to identify and target specific houses.

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Despite the incidents in Greenwich being explained away, online warnings of suspicious powders assumed to be poison laid down as a trap for innocent dogs have never really left social media and have continued to spread since 2014 without really offering anything new. This is likely fuelled in part by the persistent string of speculative local media articles about suspicious substances found in various parts of the world – local media articles that generally reach no definitive conclusion.

In fact, while investigating a number of such media reports, they generally conclude in one of two ways. Firstly, that an innocent explanation was offered and the suspicious substance was found to be non-toxic. Or secondly, that no explanation was ever offered, or if it was, the local media determined any follow-up “un-newsworthy”.
In no cases we looked at was it determined that someone or some group had been spreading dog poison in the way described in the warnings.

Of course this is not to say that poisonings do not occur. There are numerous cases of dogs becoming ill as a result of ingesting household or industrial pesticides, or consuming poison-laced foods intended for other animals such as pests, or consuming plants that are poisonous to dogs, and in some more isolated instances, suspicious cases of poisons possibly intended specifically for dogs (albeit not in the form of white powders.)

As such, it is – of course – always good practise to keep your dogs away from suspicious materials, but spreading alarmist and misleading messages like the ones above doesn’t help anyone.

If you want more information on how to keep your dogs safe, read this article from the RSPCA.