Stupidity by Bromsgrove District Council

I worked with a lady many years ago whose dog was "bitten by an adder" and unfortunately died. The place she was walking was 99.9% not adder territory. The vet found no bite marks but concluded it must have been an adder. I suspected at the time it was an insect bite to which the dog had reacted badly.
So, yes, these ridiculous reports get about but unfortunately people remember the adder bit and not the more likely an insect bit.


Edited by Suzy - 21 Jul 2014 at 12:46am

By the way Alan, in answer to your first question I had a ridiculous conservation with a Council press officer over one of these non-adder adder bite incidents several years ago.
A dog died a day after being in a fight in long grass in one of our country parks. It had several bites on both nose and balls, so probably a rat, mink, stoat or weasel all of which have been seen in the area. The vet of course pronounced it had been killed by an adder.
Once the local Parish Council heard this, they started demanding that the County Council take action to safeguard everyone in the village and their pets from these dangerous vipers. The press officer contacted me and I explained that there weren't any adders within 20 miles, that the snakes that locals did see were grass snakes which were very common in the area and therefore we wouldn't be posting warning notices about non-existent animals.  She kept mentioning vipers during the phone conversation and at the very end just when I thought we had got the press release sorted she said " so there are three snakes in Derbyshire, adders, grass snakes and vipers".

It is common for people to assume vets known everything.