COMANCHE CO., Okla_ Residents in
northeastern Comanche
County say someone is
poisoning their dogs.
Comanche County
Sheriff Kenny Stradley said there have been four suspicious dog deaths in the
past year. They're all in the same neighborhood: a residential area just east
of Lake Lawtonka on Miller Road. He said it's still early in
the investigation, but it appears that all of the dogs were poisoned with
antifreeze.
Investigators
say these types of cases are difficult to prove. It's very hard to determine
how the antifreeze got into the dogs' systems. It's hard to know whether they
drank it, or if they ate something that was soaked in it.
Right now,
investigators are waiting on lab reports from veterinarians to determine the
level of antifreeze toxicity in the dogs. A local vet said they both displayed
symptoms of antifreeze poisoning: acting drunk, vomiting and kidney failure.
Their owners said it's a devastating loss.
Dog owner Stacy
Kinney said he's had to bury three of his dogs here in the past eight months. Kinney
said they all died of apparent antifreeze poisoning, one of them just last
week.
"It was Thursday
night," Kinney said. "My four-year-old boxer came down with the same symptoms.
So knowing what it was at that point, we immediately carried him to the vet,
hoping to flush it out of his system. Of course, to failure, it didn't. Friday
night, we had to put him down."
He said it's a
devastating loss for his entire family; it's a loss they've had to deal with
too many times.
"They're
not just animals," Kinney said. "They're family to us. We've raised these from
the time they were small and raised up with all of our children. Our Jack Russell
had been around the world with us."
Kinney said
after the deaths, he and another resident turned to the sheriff's department
for help. Sheriff Stradley said these types of cases are often difficult to
solve.
"You never
know where the dogs roaming or anything like that," Stradley said. "With
farmers trying to take care of their cattle, they could bait the dogs, putting
out poison or something like that. They could be going over somebody's house,
tearing up the flower bed. People put out antifreeze for that. It's very hard
to prove."
Stradley said
the necessary lab reports will provide vital evidence for their case. Until
then, Kinney said he'll be keeping an even closer eye on his pets.
Sheriff Stradley said right now, they're not sure if the dogs were
poisoned intentionally. He said it's a good possibility that they may have
ingested the antifreeze because of someone who carelessly left it out in the
open. To his knowledge, no one has ever been prosecuted for that, but he does
say it's not smart.
Sheriff Stradley
said until this case gets resolved, he's urging residents to keep a close watch
over their pets. Veterinarians say dogs will be tempted to drink antifreeze
because of its sweet taste.
