Mysterious white blobs have started appearing on UK beaches that could prove fatal.
Parents and dog owners are being urged to keep their children and
pets away from the lumps which have been seen in Margate, Thanet,
Brighton, Bournemouth and on the Isle of Wight.
Councils are urging people to contact them if they see the lumps which smell like diesel or fire lighters.
TV vet Marc Abraham believes they are palm oil. He said: ‘These
things can cause two-fold problems, the first is gastro, the second is
foreign body obstructions.
‘As the palm oil is so gelatinous it can get lodged in the oesophagus
and require emergency surgery. If you think your dog has swallowed
something it shouldn’t, contact your vet immediately.’
A vet in Newquay, Cornwall, gave life-saving treatment to five dogs that had collapsed after eating the substance.
A Cornwall Council spokesman said they have received ‘blob’ reports
from beach walkers and pet owners at Porthcothan, Treyarnon Bay,
Constantine Bay, Harlyn Bay and Trevone.
When similar blobs were washed up in 2014, dozens of dogs needed treatment and several died.
A blob weighing nearly quarter of a ton and measuring several feet around was found on an Isle of Wight holiday beach in 2014.
It needed three people with a trolley to cart it off the sands at Hamstead beach, near Newtown.
In October 2013 in Cornwall, Zanzi, a miniature schnauzer dog, died
after eating some of the palm oil, forcing the council to post signs
warning of pollution.
And in February 2014, Jess Squires told how she was strolling along
the beach at Brighton with her Labrador cross called Luna, which fell
ill after eating a lump of the oil.
Luna had to be rushed to the vet and given injections so she could expel the substance.
Palm oil is a vegetable oil derived from the pulp of the fruit of African, American and Maripa palms.
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