California police administered an overdose-reversing drug to a pit bull puppy in attempts to save it from a potential fentanyl overdose.
On Friday, the Irvine police department announced that it administered a dose of Narcan to the puppy after it was exposed to fentanyl in a car and began to “show signs of an overdose”.
The dog’s owners, Caleb Aaron Gibson, 29, of San Juan Capistrano, and Katherine Marylou Menke, 27, of Santa Ana, were arrested at a Walmart on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and possession of narcotics, police said.
ABC7 reports that officers brought along the eight-week-old puppy while taking Gibson and Menke to a police station.
“Their puppy inside the car was exposed to fentanyl and began to show signs of an overdose,” police said.
According to an Irvine police spokesperson, Kyle Oldoerp, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times, one of the arrestees said: “Oh, I think my dog is overdosing.”
“She knew the symptoms because it was the second time the dog had overdosed,” Oldoerp added.
“Officers gave the dog a dose of Narcan, and she immediately began to recover,” police said in a statement.
Video posted online by the police department showed officers administering Narcan to the puppy as it breathed rapidly. After administering the drug, an officer can be seen stroking the puppy’s ears as it lay on the ground.
“Maybe it was a baggie on the ground of the car; we really don’t know,” Oldoerp told the Los Angeles Times, adding: “If they’re using drugs in their car, we can only speculate.”
Police quickly transported the dog to an emergency veterinarian for treatment. “We are happy to report the dog is recovering fully, and our animal services unit will take possession of her,” police said.
Speaking about the charges against Gibson and Menke, Oldoerp said: “We wanted to be sure we knew the outcome of the dog before we actually charged them.”
Describing canine fentanyl ingestion and overdose, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s Working Dog Center, Cynthia Otto, has said that fentanyl, a drug that is used to lace heroin, “can be absorbed across mucus membranes. When dogs are out there sniffing, if they get into a pile of powder, fentanyl can be absorbed across their mucous membranes in their nose, and they can face a life-threatening overdose”.
Otto says that people “have to recognize the signs that their dog might have been exposed. At an early phase, the dog’s respiration rate increases. They may start panting; they may start salivating. They may actually whine or become a little anxious. And then it progresses on as the dose increases to becoming very sedate. Their heart rate slows down, then their breathing slows down, and then eventually their breathing stops.”
In recent years, California has seen a spike in opioid-related overdose deaths. According to the California department of public health, there were nearly 6,000 opioid-related overdose deaths across the state in 2021.
On a federal level, overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone and primarily fentanyl reached 70,601 in 2021.
Last December, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that in 2022, it seized 50.6m fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and more than 10,000lb of fentanyl powder – enough fentanyl to kill every person in the US.
In March, the Food and Drug Administration approved selling naloxone – better known by its brand name, Narcan – without a prescription. The nasal spray, which has been hailed as life-saving, has also been found to work effectively on dogs.
• This article was amended on 11 September 2023 to include quotes from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s Working Dog Center’s director, Cynthia Otto, who describes canine fentanyl overdose ingestion and symptoms.
