Dog dies after eating bad sausage

CLARK FORK - Authorities are investigating the death of a dog that apparently consumed tainted sausage found on a U.S. Forest Service trail along East Fork Creek.

"I feel pretty confident it's going to come back as a dog poisoning, but I'm going to let the lab confirm that," said Idaho Department of Fish & Game Conservation Officer Matt Haag.

Haag said the suspect sausage is being analyzed by a toxicologist at the University of Idaho. The results are pending.

Bonner County resident Mary Franzel said she went for a stroll on Friday with her dogs on trail No. 1184.

Within a quarter mile of the trailhead, her four dogs encountered the sausage and consumed some of it.

When the hike was over several hours later, Franzel's German shepherd, Chumani, was panting and foaming at the mouth. It lapsed into seizures and later died. Another one of her dogs, a mutt named Oege, began displaying similar symptoms, but it was spared an agonizing death with emetics to induce vomiting.

As a precaution, Franzel's two golden retriever/spaniel mixes, were also given emetics and it became clear they too had eaten some of the sausage, but apparently escaped injury.