(from the Wierd News segment of the EJ)

VETS FACE STONED PETS
Pot Plots Best Bet

Canadian Press NELSON, B.C.

Veterinarians are beginning to wonder if some of the pooches around
here are high on something more than a dog's life.

Since May, vets in this Kootenay region have dealt with 10 medium to
large dogs who returned from walks with their masters in an area near
some railway tracks not feeling quite themselves.

"The dogs exhibit similar symptoms in that they are kind of
spaced-out," explained Dr. Moira Drosdovech at the Selkirk Veterinary
Hospital.

"Their pupils are dilated, they're off balance, they're just not
themselves. It's almost like what you would see if you had given them
a narcotic, but we're not exactly sure."

Dr. Theresa Hart at Cottonwood Falls Animal Clinic has seen five sick
dogs since May.

Hart said the dogs come into the clinic in a hallucinogenic stupor
with a low heart rate, low body temperature, and act as if they are
going to have a seizure.

"My inclination is that it's not a deliberate poisoning," she said.
"It's just something they are getting into," Hart said.

Hart said the cause could be a fungal toxin found on mushrooms or near
water sources.

But Dr. Andrew Jones at the Nelson Animal Hospital said it's possible
the dogs have managed to sniff out a hillside marijuana grow operation
and simply helped themselves.

"The dogs take off through the woods and they come back and they have
gotten into something they shouldn't be into, whether it's someone's
private stash or whatever," said Jones, who's seen three such dogs.

Jones said his own dog once broke into an illicit pot plot in a
neighbour's yard in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.

"I got to see all the signs of marijuana poisoning," said Jones. "He
was much the same as these dogs. You call his name and he looks up to
the sky and walks to the back of the yard."