No, Dogs Are Not ODing After Eating Fentanyl-Laced Human Poo

First there were police officers falsely claiming to overdose simply from being in the presence of fentanyl. Then there were the cops giving their K-9s naloxone for the same reason. But the latest fentanyl moral panic is a lot grosser: pet owners—and a growing contingent of drug war proponents decrying San Francisco as a dystopian hell hole—are warning people that dogs are getting high from eating the feces of drug users. 

Earlier this week, a San Francisco-based reporter tweeted about how a dog ingested “Human Feces Tainted W/Marijuana & Opioids.” 

The reporter quoted a pet owner named Jackie who said her one-year-old “Himalayan poodle” (note: this is not a real dog breed) Pockets ate poo last week and was subsequently “wobbling & her tail was down.” 

“Pockets is lucky she didn’t need Narcan.  A vet tech told me she recently saw a dog that ate human poo w/meth,” the journalist said, adding the vet who saw Pockets said she comes across this scenario a few times a week. 

A similar story involving a dog eating meth-laced poo in San Francisco went viral last year. 

But a toxicologist told VICE News because of the way the human body processes drugs, the theory doesn’t make sense. 

“It would require a lot of work and a lot of eating of feces,” said Dr. Ryan Marino, medical director of toxicology and addiction medicine at University Hospitals in Cleveland. 

The reason it would be so hard is because when it comes to opioids and amphetamines, they’re often completely metabolized by the body or there’s a very minimal amount in the waste, he continued. 

“Any amount of usable drug in feces from someone who's using drugs is going to be essentially negligible.” 

Marino said the one exception could be THC (the psychoactive cannabinoid in weed), which is metabolized into a non-active metabolite in human feces. He said that wouldn’t have any psychoactive effect in humans, but he wasn’t sure if it could have an effect on dogs. 

A post from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals noted that more dogs are getting stoned due to consuming weed edibles and that “exposures in indirect ways have also been reported, including consumption of human feces.” A report published in the Australian Veterinary Journal in 2022 that looked at 15 dogs that ate human poo found that “ingestion of human feces containing THC may lead to marijuana toxicosis (poisoning) in dogs.” (Luckily, even if your dog eats weed, they are unlikely to die from it.) 

When it comes to fentanyl, Marino said dogs actually have a higher tolerance than humans—even if someone left the actual drugs out as opposed to feces. 

As for why this urban legend seems to be gaining popularity, he said it plays well in pro drug war circles and those being targeted by that agenda.  

“Saying that now this is a threat to your beloved dog certainly plays as well to a more wealthy conservative audience.” 

Regardless, it’s probably best not to let your dog eat a big pile of shit.