Today a family is grieving the loss of their beloved dog Cooper aged just 14 months.

Last Sunday he was fine. By Wednesday he was dead.

His family, Andrew and Kim McCormick and their toddler daughter Phoebe, Cooper’s best friend, have no answers.

Cooper was gently put to sleep 72 hours after entering water at a river and a pond in Belfast. Within 20 minutes he became disorientated and after a mammoth effort by vets and his family, they were forced to agree to let him slip away to long sleep.

14 months

60 weeks

420 days

That’s all Cooper got. That’s all Cooper’s family got with him.

He deserved better. His family deserved better. Our community deserves better.

Cooper is the EIGHTH family dog to die in Northern Ireland in the last two months after being around fresh water.

Cooper’s medical tests indicted his brain was likely under attack and no other organ was affected.

The NI Environment Agency ruled out blue green algae and ‘other pollutants’

Question 1: What led expert vets to inject a family dog with deadly penobarbitol?

Answer: Compassion, respect, professionalism and the knowledge they could do no more.

Question 2: What led Cooper’s family to make the decision to let him slip away?

Answer: Love, pure unadulterated love.

Question 3: What and who created the situation where no other decisions would have been fair on this big boy?

Answer: Our authorities have yet to answer

Cooper’s body came under attack by something he came into contact with either on land or in the water.

Vets could do no more.

Love could do no more.

Hope and prayers could do no more.

Cooper, fit and healthy 72 hours earlier, was suffering which was a situation that was unfair on him and his loved ones.

So the decision was made to allow him peace. However there is no peace for his family.

They know something went seriously wrong. They know that whatever attacked Cooper has not been traced.

And they know others, including dogs and children, may be at risk.

Today we ask @DAREA and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency: When is the right time to do right thing?

Full story here: http://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/belfast-river-tests-offer-no-27225575