A WARNING has been issued to dog owners in Haslingden after suspected contaminated raw meat was found in a park.

Two Border Collies were treated by vets after eating the meat in Victoria Park, Haslingden on Wednesday.

The owner, who did not wish to be identified, said: "I have used that park every day for years.

"It is used by a lot of dog owners.

"One of my dogs went running over to it and at first I thought it looked like a child had dropped a sandwich.

"My other dog picked it up and it looked like big scraps that you would get from a butchers.

"I spoke to another dog owner who said his dog had picked something up a couple of months ago and was poorly for three days.

"I've heard of this happening in other parks.

"Why would anybody do it? They might be doing it to kill a fox but it is a park used by a lot of dog walkers and it is near a children's play area. It is scary.

"Even if it was not contaminated it could have gone off. We are worried someone is doing it on purpose."

Vet Lisa Smith, from Vets4Pets, Rawtenstall said: "It is difficult to say at this stage if there was anything in it.

"Raw meat is not bad for dogs but it is a very weird thing. Who would scatter raw meat in a park?

"We are saying you would not expect there to be raw meat in a park and I think there will be other incidents like this.

"Hopefully there is no long lasting damage to these dogs.

"The owner did the right thing in bringing them straight in.

"If you see your dog eating it bring them in as we do not know what is in it."