Dog owner says pet ate opioid-tainted human feces at park

SAN FRANCISCO -- A California dog owner is warning other pet owners in the city of what happened to her dog, Pockets, after she got sick from ingesting human waste tainted with marijuana and opioids at a park in San Francisco.

As seen in adorable videos posted by her owner Jackie Shepard, Pockets is a 1-year-old Himalayan Sheepdog Poodle mix who loves the outdoors. One video shows the furry canine frolicking in the sand at a dog beach and another hanging out a car window, wind flying through her tanned fur.

Shepard and Pockets were enjoying the outdoors at Fort Mason Thursday when Pockets decided to eat something a bit...unsavory.

"I noticed she was eating something, so I ran over to see what she was eating and, unfortunately, it was poop," says Shepard.

It wasn't until several hours later Shepard noticed something was very wrong.

"At about 8 o'clock, she was wobbling, and her tail was down. Something was definitely wrong with her."

Documents from emergency care showed Pockets had symptoms from marijuana intoxication and there were opioids in her system --frightening enough on its own, but something else was alarming.

"Essentially, the doctor on that night told me this was relatively common, and she sees it a few times a week," says Shepard.

Dog owners at Fort Mason were understandably shocked at the news.

"That's horrible. That's my worst nightmare. I don't know how anybody could prevent this," says Yassine Derbani, who was at the park with fellow poodle mix, Mile.

Luckily, documents show Pockets didn't ingest enough to need Narcan and Shepard is pleased her pet is back to her old stick-chewing playful self.

A health care professional told our sister station, ABC7 News San Francisco, Shepard did everything right and had the dosage been bigger, Pockets could have suffered kidney or liver damage.

Shepard says she'll keep an even closer watch on her pet from now on and hopes her story will encourage others to do the same.

"There are so many people with dogs who probably don't know this is a threat to their dogs, so I wanted to share to spread awareness people can be really careful and watch out for symptoms of this."