Port St Mary Golf Club does not use highly toxic substances, it has confirmed.

The club made a statement in connection with the tragic death of a dog called Suki in Port St Mary last week.

Suki’s owner, commissioner Alec Merchant, said his much loved Border collie fell ill after her usual walk in the vicinity of Kallow Point, Perwick bay and by the golf course.

Within an hour she started vomiting and two days later - on Tuesday morning - her organs had failed and she was brain dead, so was put down.

He said: ’Whatever she had was highly toxic ... I think it was poison for rabbits in their droppings.’

In a statement on Facebook beneath a story about Suki’s death, the golf club’s chairman, Ashton Lewis, said the golf club employs ’a professional maintenance company to oversee and undertake applications of all materials to the golf course’.

Applications are made by qualified operatives and in accordance with regulations governing substances hazardous to health, pesticides and health and safety at work.

He said the club has a zero pesticides policy. No chemicals are used on the golf course for the control of any animals. This includes insecticides, nematicides, vermacides, rodenticides and any other form of animal repellent.