DOG walkers at a Darwen woods are worried about the mysterious pieces of raw meat which have been left on footpaths over the past three weeks.

Yvonne Nevin was concerned after her Tornjak breed Croatian Shepherd dog called Neo has been ill overnight after eating some of the meat in Sunnyhurst Woods on Wednesday night.

She says that local dog owners fear they could have been laced with poison or if there is something wrong with them.

She said: “I went in the woods and did not realise it was not a one-off thing.

“A couple of dog owners have been talking about it and they have been sharing it on Facebook.

“It is a major problem as so many people are going into the woods and some are not wanting to go there in case the food has been contaminated or poisoned.

“I was up from 3am yesterday morning as Neo was ill but he is a big dog you just wonder how it would affect a smaller one.

“They are dogs if they see food on the ground like a sandwich they will eat it but why would someone put raw meat.

“I can understand vegetable for some of the animals for winter but have you heard of a squirrel eating a large piece of meat.”

Another dog owner Jackie Taylor took photographs of the meat along the footpath to the woods on Falcon Avenue.

She said: “It is shocking and I took a picture because I did not know what was going on.

“They looked like pork steaks put out and it is just not normal and seems a bit bizarre.

“There were about six or seven bits of meat on the footpath

“I have had a lot of people worrying about dog walkers not picking up dog mess but I know most owners don’t leave mess there and if they are just doing it to poison dogs then I would be really worried.”

Nadine Stocks added: "It has been going on for three weeks now and I picked up five lumps of lamb steak and they were big chunks.

"I disposed of them and put on Facebook to warn them about it because a couple of years ago someone put nails in sausages while the dog ate them.

"Every day I go walking there in the morning and there is nothing there but in the afternoon they are all there.

"It is concerning because it could be someone just trying to do a good deed but we need to warn people."

The Lancashire Telegraph contacted the Darwen Neighbourhood Team but they were unavailable at the time of going to press.