Dog packs in eastern Russia are inexplicably turning pink and blue.
The bizarre phenomenon occurred in and around the city of Dzerzhinsk, about 242 miles east of Moscow, near the abandoned chemical factory Dzerzhinskoye Orgsteklo that once manufactured highly toxic cyanide acid, which is also a main ingredient in a “Prussian blue” “formerly commonly used to dye. Experts believe that this detail may help explain why some puppies are now completely blue – including their droppings, according to veterinarians.
Without clearer details, Dmitry Karelkin, chief physician at the veterinary hospital Zoozashchita, officially blamed the blue tone of “some kind of chemical”, which does not appear to have harmed the animals physically.
Meanwhile, examiners at the Lobachevsky Chemical Research Institute at Nizhny Novgorod State University, as well as the State Veterinary Surveillance Committee, found no “signs of irritating chemical burns”, while blood and stool test results did not reveal significant toxicity .
Blue dogs will remain under observation for about 20 days. In the meantime, no announcement has been made to specifically target dogs that are turning pink, according to the East2West news agency. However, some are calling for an investigation of a chemical dump in another area of Dzerzhinsk, where 300,000 tonnes of toxic waste were discharged after the Cold War. Kristall’s next defense factory has also been implicated in local reports.
East2West reported that city officials are calling the allegations “exaggerated”.
