Family Dogs Die After Playing by North Carolina Pond

PEOPLE.COM reports:

Three Dogs Die of Toxic Algae Poisoning hours after playing by North Carolina pond. A doggie playdate at a park in North Carolina turned tragic after three pups died from blue green algae poisoning from a pond’s harmful algal bloom. The dogs all experienced seizures, the first occurring just 15 minutes after the canines left the pond. By midnight, all three dogs were dead.

The dog owners, Melissa Martin and Denise Mintz, shared a Facebook post the next day, with photos of their three dogs — West Highland terriers Abby and Izzy and a larger canine named Harpo — from their time at a pond in Wilmington, just hours before all three pets died.

Martin told CNN that she didn’t notice the algae at first, but, as she learned from her veterinarian, what appeared to be debris from flowers was actually blooms of cyanobacteria.