The dogs poisoned on a walk in Hillsborough Forest Park with human food left in piles, have survived the night after emergency veterinary care in Co Down.
They include two family pets, an elderly Wolfhound Collie mix aged 12 and a Springer Spaniel aged two, plus three dogs who work with search and rescue teams to help vulnerable people who have become lost or injured.
Shauna Harper from K9SARNI said she was on an evening walk with her dog Koda and friend and dog trainer, Alicia Huntley, when their dogs came across "piles and piles" of discarded discarded food.
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Shauna said: "They dogs are all well trained and were in the off lead area exploring the edges of the trails when they stopped and started eating something on the ground.
"With five dogs there was obvious competition and they were wolfing it down. Koda and Ellie ate the most and Alicia and I had to pull each dog away so one of use could hold them at a safe distance while the rest were removed from the food piles.
"Initially I though they were just chocolate biscuits from a picnic but we discovered six very large piles of food and every single item was toxic for dogs.
"We were quite deep into the trails at this stage and we had to get the dogs back to the car and straight to the nearest vets. We landed at Cromlyn Vets about 40 minutes after the dogs consumed the food and they took us in as five emergencies.
"The dogs were given activated charcoal which forced them to be sick and bring up as much of the food as possible to try to get the toxins out of their bodies as quickly as possible. The poor vets had to examine that and they didn't believe there was any rat poison or anything but human food.
"But they said if we had waited until the morning, with the amount the dogs had swallowed, we would have had very, very sick pups. We cold have woken up on Saturday morning to five dead dogs.
"The vet's clients waiting for their appointments were very kind and let us go ahead of them and the vets acted very fast. They would have preferred to have kept the dogs in for 48 hours for observation but the bill would have been at least £1,000 per dog and we just didn't have £5,000 to hand.
"But as Alicia and I are both dog professionals they allowed us to take the dogs home with more charcoal, knowing that we could observe them overnight.
"Thankfully they have been OK so far and we have to go back next week for blood tests to be taken to see if there is any damage that can be treated.
"We both feel very lucky to have spotted the dogs eating the food and we would warn anyone going to Hillsborough Park to be aware of what happened to us.
"I suspect the food piles were left deliberately although it's hard to conceive why anyone would want to attempt to endanger the lives of dogs. There was certainly too much food left for it to have been discarded from a picnic."
The council and PSNI have both been notified and an investigation is underway.
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