Dog Community

Why to not leave dogs out unattended...

Posted : 3/15/2006 2:53:01 PM

This makes me want to scream, or cry, or both. What kind of person gets their kicks off something like this?

[size=3]
Poisoned meat kills eight dogs in Ada

[/size]ADA -- Nine dogs were poisoned, and at least eight of them died, after someone tossed tainted hamburger meat over fences in a west Ada neighborhood.

The hamburger meat contained strychnine, a plant-based poison that affects the central nervous system.

The poisonous meat was thrown in the back yards in the early hours of March 4, according to an Ada police report. Someone apparently went down alleys and tossed the meat over fences.

Ted Townsend, who lost a 9-year-old German shepherd and a 7-year-old corgi, said the acts were clearly deliberate. He said tainted hamburger meat found in back yards helped reveal what happened.

"It's been pretty hard on us. They were just beloved members of our family," Townsend said.

"The frightening part of it to me -- and it's tragic enough losing our animals -- but our grandchildren play in that yard, and this could just as easily have been one of them picking this up, and we could be looking at this as a murder charge and not animal cruelty."

An Ada police report said officers first responded to a call from Debbie Rodgers, who found one of her three dachshunds dead about 1 a.m. last Saturday. Her other two dogs died soon after.

Townsend's home is across the alley from Rodgers' home. He and neighbor Cassie Nolen, who owned a black Labrador retriever, said their veterinarian confirmed their dogs had been poisoned.

Another neighbor, Rachel Salinas, lost her Labrador retriever, and her pit bull terrier's fate is uncertain.

Authorities are asking for anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (580) 332-2824.

[linkhttp://newsok.com/article/1784484/]http://newsok.com/article/1784484/[/link]

tashakota

Posted : 3/15/2006 3:29:20 PM

sick, just plain sick...

hlb118

Posted : 3/15/2006 3:36:12 PM

Well let's see... I just got the shivers, started tearing up, heart sank, and got really pissed at the same time. I'm glad I know ALL of my neighbors, plus their neighbors, and trust them.

People are just sick. I would personally shoot them. Grab the shot gun and shoot them if they did that to my dogs.

I hope they get poisoned!!!!!1

labcrab

Posted : 3/15/2006 3:40:58 PM

Oh geez... Well your subject is right on - this is exactly why people should never leave their pets outside unsupervised.

huskymom

Posted : 3/15/2006 3:46:11 PM

This happened to our wiem Christie. Well the people stuffed the meat in a garbage bag and left it for her to find. It was a long time ago, I dont even remember Christie. But my mom does not want another dog because of this. She still has nitemares about it. She watched Christie go from being a big, beautiful, sleek and muscular dog, in to an emaciated creature in less than a week. There was no help for her and the vets said she may get better on her own so she was not put down. Mom cried for months.

jeano

Posted : 3/15/2006 4:11:34 PM

Yes. When I was living in New Mexico this happened at least once every couple of years. Once it happened out in one of the rural areas in the Sandia/Manzano Mountains, too. Moving to the country is no proof against bad people. Very, very sad and very, very frightening.

I never leave Sofia out alone on her tie-out. A moose could stomp her, loose dogs could attack her...

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 3/15/2006 6:06:51 PM

This is so sick. But it sounded like all of these people had fenced yards. If your dog has a doggy door or knows to let you know that he has to go out, you really don't think that you have to run outside to supervise a trip to poop or pee. I'm glad we know all our neighbors too, as we share fences with 3 different houses.

sooner

Posted : 3/15/2006 6:45:39 PM

Good point, and I know that my determined puppy could find something and scarf it up before I ever even saw it.

huskymom

Posted : 3/15/2006 6:59:48 PM

Is there a way to teach dogs not to eat things that are givin to them by others? Or things they find? My friends dog will not eat anything from a stranger. But she wasnt taught that. She will however eat anything she finds herself so if a stranger gives her something and she takes and drops it, she will later "find it" and its now ok to eat. Crusher on the other hand will eat anything offered to him. Its like an obligation with him.

cakana

Posted : 3/15/2006 7:39:22 PM

The minute my dogs are let out, they run to sniff, eat grass, a leaf blowing by, etc. My one dog eats the other dogs poop unless we are right there to pick it up immediately, which my husband is really good about. If anyone were that sick to want to poison my dogs, they'd be able to do it pretty easily. I'd do DNA testing on the tainted food though and spend the rest of my life hunting them down [:@]

garrettandpaul

Posted : 3/15/2006 7:41:03 PM

Reading that makes me so mad and made me think about my family dog Rachel(white Samoyed Huskey). We had her when I was like 5 yo we moved from NY to Florida and parents said we couldn't bring her because she wouldn't adjust to the temps there. So we left her with my Grandmother. Rachel loved being outside in all weather and Grandma could hardly ever get her to stay in the house. Grandma woke up one am went outside to call to her and she wouldn't come. Anyways they found her in back of the garage almost dead took her to the vet where they found she had eaten something with posion and died shortly after. I remember I cried for what seemed like days when Grandma called and told us. Just wanted to share my story.

huskymom

Posted : 3/15/2006 9:29:43 PM

So sorry about your dog Garret. And now I am worried. I mean I've heard of this before but I guess I always just assumed it was done by animal loving people that thought the poor dogs who were chained up in the back yard were better off dead. This article is obviously not like that. So I just put Crusher outside. He doesn't really llike to be inside when its cold out cause it gets really warm in here and hey, he's a husky. But I cant honestly stay outside with him every minute he wants to be out there. So how can I keep him safe? What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen to my pup. He would gladly lick the face off of a complete stranger if said stranger asked him to.

Lexi

Posted : 3/15/2006 10:09:33 PM

Sooner, we just have all kinds of lovely stories in our news lately, don't we?

I get so angry at stories like this. There's sadness, but at the same time I get SO angry. I feel like I could seriously HURT heartless people like that. I really hope that they have some HELLISH karmic debts to pay.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 3/16/2006 1:46:44 PM

Slightly OT here, but this thread made me remember something that happened about 15 yrs. ago. We went on vacation and someone who knew that we were gone and that our next door neighbors were also gone went into our neighbors yard in the middle of the night and threw a couple of plastic bags of used motor oil over the adjoining fence and into our pool. This ruined the filter when it started up and did about $900 worth of damage, most of which was the labor of having to drain the pool and scrub the oil off the sides & tiles. My oldest DS who was watching the house at the time called the police & turned in a vandalism report, but the point is that even knowing your neighbors really well and knowing they would never do something like that doesn't actually guarantee that nobody else is going to take advantage of an opportunity to wreak some sort of havoc.

sooner

Posted : 3/16/2006 2:46:01 PM

Another reason not to leave dogs out while no one is home:

My mom was going through a major house remodel. A company ended up delivering some appliances and fixtures while she wasn't home. They took it upon themselves to prop the gate open and pile the stuff on the back porch, letting all of her 5 dogs out in the process. Fortunately, in this case, the neighbors saw what happened and were able to put the dogs back in. It's good to be on good terms with your neighbors.

NDR: My dad lives in a neighboorhood full of families with high/middle school age kids. There's rarely a week goes by that some group of them don't pull some kind of "prank" on multiple houses. [:@]