A dog owner was left horrified when she pulled a dirty needle from her pet’s paw while playing in a park.
Mandy Short was playing catch with her dog Stella on Glasgow Green, when a needle became stuck in her back paw.
Shocked with what had happened, she immediately pulled it out and called her vet for advice, who said to clean the paw and monitor Stella in case she fell ill.
Mandy, from the Dennistoun area of Glasgow, still has the needle at home in a plastic box.
She said she has been unable to find somewhere to dispose of it safely since the incident, which took place in March.
Mandy took it to a pharmacy who said they could not take needles, and then to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary which also turned her away.
She said: “They said they weren’t allowed to dispose of any needles.
“They don’t have a licence or something, they said I could go up on one of the wards and see if they’ve got anything, I thought ‘what!’”
Mandy added she didn’t blame drug users for discarding drug litter if there was no safe place for them to dispose the items.
She said: “I was a bit annoyed about that because I thought no wonder they are dropping needles if there is actually nowhere safe to dispose.”
Last week, during a community council meeting in Calton, Paul Brannan from Glasgow City Council’s Estates Management said some of the flower beds in the park had been stripped after a number of public reports of needles being dropped in them.
A spokesman for the Glasgow City Council said: “A small number of incidents involving drug-related litter discarded within bushes on Glasgow Green have been identified by members of the public and staff over the past six months.
“These used syringes were generally removed by properly trained staff within an hour of receiving the report.
“To reduce the risk to the public and to deter people from discarding drug paraphernalia in this way, bushes have been removed at two locations within the park.
“The measure has been effective with no further evidence of drug-related litter being found at these locations.”
The spokesman added they understand the upset caused to the public, as well as the risk to public safety from “potential infection” or “needle prick injury”.
When asked if this incident was isolated to Glasgow Green, the spokesman said they couldn’t say if there had not been reports of similar incidents.
The spokesman said: “I couldn’t say that there’s not been, unfortunately, it’s something that is a fact that people discard drug paraphernalia in various places.”