Antonia Speariett paid £12 for a rope tug toy online. On 7 October she played tug of war with Cane, her five-year-old cane corso, at home in Coppull, Lancashire. That evening the 95kg dog would not eat. He refused breakfast the next day too, so she took him to the vet.
Cane had an intestinal blockage and needed emergency surgery. The vets found the rope. It had anchored in his stomach and threaded down into his intestines, pulled tight enough to cut off the blood supply. The tissue had gone black and purple and did not come back. Speariett had fifteen minutes to reach the clinic and say goodbye.
“A £12 dog toy bought from Amazon killed my dog,” she told the BBC. “If you are a dog owner who has rope dog toys, throw them out.” Amazon said it was sorry to hear about what happened and that it is in touch with her.
Since posting about Cane, other owners have come forward with similar stories across different brands, she says, and she has started a petition asking for safety rules for dog toys.
What this means for your dog
Rope toys are not automatically dangerous. Plenty of dogs chew them for years without trouble. But cotton strands do not break down, and a swallowed length can pull tight into a line that cuts into the gut. Check toys for fraying and loose ends, retire anything a determined chewer has started to unpick, and supervise tug games instead of leaving a rope in the crate. A blockage shows up as vomiting, a dropped appetite, a sore belly or straining to pass stool. Those signs mean a vet visit the same day, because damage inside moves faster than the dog lets on. Swallowed acorns work the same way.