Maine Woman Loses Dog To Toxic Plant at Popular Park in Cumberland

Twin Brook Recreational Facility is a four season park that covers 224 acres of land, according to Cumberlandmaine.com.

WGME covered a story on this particular park, reporting that the algae has become extremely toxic to dogs, in particular. It's toxic when it is in high concentrations.

According to the article,  a woman named Elayna Girardin was talking her dogs on a walk in the park, recently. The dogs are named Stella and Luna and the next day Elayna had to take them to the vet because they start to become sick and both showed symptoms of this blue-green algae exposure.

She was walking kind of stiff. My other dog Stella tried to jump on the bed and yelped in pain, they became almost walking zombies, they just weren't with it.

As the article states, the vet had a hard time trying to figure out what was happening to the dogs. After bringing the dogs back home, one started having seizures.

They had to euthanize the dog and were asked to take some blood samples for further investigation by the vet and that is how they were able to diagnose the poisoning.

The results showed blue-green algae exposure, something the town's director of communications says is unusual.

WGME, Channel 13

The Cumberland Director of Communications, Whitney Miller said,

This blue-green algae is dangerous but it is also usually thriving in really warm, sunny conditions, and obviously, this summer has been a little different with what we're usually experiencing here in Maine.

Elayna doesn't want anyone to have to experience what she went through with her dogs and is urging people to be vigilant with their pets and stay away from this algae.

If you want to know what this specific algae looks like it is like a slimy substance on the top of the water.