A doting owner has been left heartbroken after claiming her puppy died as a result of eating a vape pod (also known as an electronic cigarette).
After noticing that her puppy was walking weirdly, Katie Baars, 38, quickly called her local vet and rushed 12-week-old Molly to the surgery.
Whilst in the car she realised that the St. Bernard puppy started to appear weak, was crying weirdly and within 20 minutes started to develop breathing problems and having seizures.
Desperate to find out what had caused her puppy to react in such a way, Katie, from Coleman, Wisconsin, quickly rushed home and claims she found a chewed-up JUUL pod containing only one-quarter of the liquid nicotine underneath her sofa.
She claims that her 17-year-old son, Javlin, had hidden the pods underneath the sofa so that his mother wouldn’t find them and believes that Molly managed to get hold of the pod and consumed the nicotine-laced liquid.
Later that night on June 29, whilst still at the vets, Molly passed away and Katie is now sharing her story to encourage others ‘understand the dangers’ of the product.
Katie said “I noticed that Molly was walking weirdly and that she looked weak – but from that point onward she quickly deteriorated. I rang the vet and quickly rushed her in and on the journey she kept getting worse.”
“Within 20 minutes she had started to develop breathing problems and was crying weirdly.”
“When we pulled into the vets she started to seizure and she was quickly seen by someone and who tried to save her.”
“Whilst she was in the vets, I quickly went home to see what may have caused this – because I didn’t want any of my other animals to get hold of it.”
“I checked everywhere outside and then started to tear the house apart inside – that’s when I found the chewed up JUUL pod underneath the sofa. There was about one quarter of the liquid left in the pod and it was completely busted so it’s clear that was what she got hold of.”
“Later that evening we were called to be told that Molly had died.”
“She was a very big dog and weighed 37 lbs at the time, so if a big dog like that can die from a little liquid I hate to think what it’s doing to people.”
“I hope that by sharing Molly’s story it will stop people from using JUUL pods – if this story even saves one person’s life then Molly didn’t die for nothing.”
Despite not smoking JUUL pods herself, Katie claims her teenage son had been doing so for two weeks and had hidden one underneath the sofa as to not get caught by his parents.
She said: “Javlin had hidden the pod underneath the sofa so that I wouldn’t see, and that was subsequently how Molly got hold of it.”
“I don’t know where he got the pods from but all he told me was that everyone at school was smoking it.”
“I want people to realise the dangers of what they’re putting into their body. She’s a heavy bodied dog and went down so fast.”
“Hopefully people will start to realise what they are polluting themselves with and the risks and think about what they’re smoking.”
JUUL have been approached for a comment.
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