Blue Death Org UK Antfreeze poisoning awareness

It seems like such a long time ago when my friend Bard Of Ely wrote his Hub about how my cat Mischief died http://hubpages.com/hub/Ethylene-glycol-antifreeze-is-a-cat-killer#comments and four months later, it's time I created my own Hub on antifreeze poisoning.

Mischief died on December 16th 2009 - put to sleep by my vet. Mischief had spent three days on a drip at the vets and the results were total kidney failure after ingesting antifreeze. Ever had to put your beloved pet to sleep? I knew it had to be done and as I held her, stroking her big fluffy head, I spoke to her about finding her way home, to come see us and not to be scared. As the needle went into the drip line, she whipped her head around with her tongue halfway to her lips and that was her last expression alive. The vet checked her heartbeat and I just sobbed my heart out. Hell, I'm crying now as I write this. I placed her in a towel and put her back into the cat carrier and put her in the car. I spotted an RSPCA officer and asked how I could join their campaign to raise awareness of antifreeze poisoning. She gave me the number of the press office and the vet receptionist asked what it was about. I was stunned! How could someone working in the industry NOT know about antifreeze poisoning? So I told her and she was shocked too. I have phoned and left messages with the press officer three times and I must not be worth the effort of returning my calls or nor must they need my help in raising awareness for their charity. So having waited to get behind another organisation, I decided to create my own. Blue Death Org UK.

During those three days that Mischief was at the vets, I did a lot of research into antifreeze and poisoning and was devastated to discover that tens of thousands of pets in the UK die every year from this. I was more alarmed to read that people deliberately poison cats and dogs and in a handful of cases - people too! Google 'antifreeze death' and there's pages and pages of heartbreaking stories about people who lost their cat/dog to this poisoning. In one case, an eleven year old girl Haley Ham in Tennessee created the Antifreeze Bill after her two dogs were poisoned and the Bill is in Senate now. Eleven years old - my hero. There were many such inspirational cases of people trying to get the message out there that I felt I had to join their voices too. I created a Facebook group and invited all the other smaller groups to join and there are now over 600 members. Steve wrote a Hub about it. I created a moonfruit site and then a ning site and people have added their own stories and pictures of their pets lost to this horrible poisoning. Ning have decided that they are going to pull their free website service so I will have to find another home for all the information, videos and pictures I have collected.

So what do I hope to achieve? Antfreeze is a necessary evil. Even the 'pet friendly' stuff is still a killer and what I'm campaigning to achieve is to ask the manufacturers to add a bitterant to their preparations to prevent it being so attractive to cats/dogs. Also if it tastes bitter, people cannot lace food/drink with it (people and pets) - it could save many people's lives and thousands of pets too. People also need to stop putting it in their water features! Seriously... it's killing wildlife too - not just cats that drink from these sources. My other objective is to get them to label their antifreeze preparations accurately with full hazard markings, ingredients and warnings. A preparation is when the main ingredient is mixed with another - so my campaign is also aimed at antifreeze screenwashes. The ones I have seen on the shelves don't have a list of ingredients yet state 'if swallowed show this container to the doctor' - why? there's not bloody ingredients listed for the doctor to know how to treat the ingestion!

Spilling just a t-spoon of this stuff on the road when you are topping up is enough to kill a cat. A tablespoon will kill a dog. I never knew that when I used it and dread to think how many animals I could have exposed to this lethal stuff.

Dettol is also a cat killer. So if you use it in your home, ensure that your cats are locked away from it after you've cleaned the floors etc as if they get it on their paws, they will then lick it and the chemical in it crystallises the brain - death follows convulsions within days. It is the chemical in Dettol that makes it go cloudy that is the killer - so other cleaners that cloud the water should be avoided too.

Join my Facebook group Blue Death Org UK - antifreeze awareness campaign - pets & people or visit www.bluedeath.org.uk also on Twitter

Help me raise awareness. Help me save the lives of other beloved pets. In one report it states that 90,000 pets die every year - that's so many broken hearts - lets try to prevent as much grief as possible by making sure we clean up spills and raise awareness. Let's make it taste horrible so people can't kill our pets through malice or ignorance. Let's stop people being able to spike others drinks with this stuff. Did you know it's in knockoff vodka and wines? It raises the alcohol levels and sweetens it - it also shuts down your kidneys, makes you go blind and will kill you if not treated. Ironically, vodka can be used to stop the renal failure IF treated straight away in PEOPLE. For pets - there's virtually no hope of survival - 88% die within 24hours. This chemical is in antifreeze/summer coolants. It's an all-year risk and global too.

So who's with me? I need people to tell me their stories, share their pictures and make a change. It could be your child you have to tell that their cat/dog has died .... it won't cost you anything. My charity doesn't accept donations but I do encourage people to donate to those charities that are involved in animal welfare.

BAN ANTIFREEZE UNLESS IT CONTAINS A BITTERING AGENT.

BETTER LABELS - MORE INFORMATION - SAVES LIVES - PEOPLE AND PETS.