Dogs require emergency treatment after being poisoned in Hillsborough Forest Park

All of the dogs, three of which were part of a search and rescue team, had to have emergency veterinary care after eating the items in Hillsborough Forest Park on Friday.

K9 Search and Rescue – a group involved in search and rescue operations following the Turkey earthquake, said on Friday that search dog Betsy along with trainee search dogs Koda and Rocko had received the very best of care. They said that three family pets were also affected.

In an update on Saturday they said that all the sick pups are doing well and will be kept under close watch before going back to vets tomorrow for blood checks.

They said they are grateful to the vets, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council and the Police Service of Northern Ireland for their swift action.

Ryan Gray of K9 Search and Rescue told BBC NI that piles of chocolate, almonds and grapes had been left out in the forest.

"When we're talking piles, you'd fill binliners [with the amount]," he said.

"Pretty much things that are incredibly toxic to the dogs."

He said that two of the dogs had consumed enough of the items to have killed them, but it was thanks to the quick reactions of the two handlers with them that had saved them by rushing them to the nearest vet.

The two dogs which ate the most had to be induced to vomit.

"I think they'll be released tonight and then it'll be a case that they'll have to go back for tests to check their liver function," he said on Saturday.

"But really it was only the reactions of the handlers noticing them and what they had ate and getting them to a vet's in Hillsborough, it was literally the closest vet they could get to."

Mr Gray said he could not say whether the items had been left on purpose for dogs, but it was worrying that so much had been left in the forest park.

He commented: "Even if they didn't know, if we're edging on the scale of giving the benefit of the doubt and you think they'd leave the grapes and the almonds out for the birds, you wouldn't leave bars of chocolate out for the birds.

"It was different piles of stuff everywhere and hidden under stuff as well."