Should pets or livestock drink or swim in water containing algal blooms?
No. Animals can become extremely ill and die after swallowing water containing toxic cyanobacteria. The number of reports suggesting that algal toxins have played a role in the deaths of dogs has increased over the past decade. In one of the first cases reported in Washington State, four pedigreed dogs died in September 1976 after drinking water from Long Lake near Spokane during a toxic Anabaena bloom. Other cyanobacterial blooms have been reported in eastern Washington, including a 1982 toxic bloom in Moses Lake that caused the deaths of two hunting dogs. In 1989, the first toxic cyanobacterial bloom west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington was documented in American Lake, Pierce County. This event caused the deaths of five cats. More recently, a toxic bloom in Lake Anderson, Jefferson County, Washington, caused the deaths of two dogs and a 2007 toxic bloom in the Potholes Reservoir that also caused the deaths of two hunting dogs. Can I eat fish from contaminated water? Microcysti
