At just eight weeks old, a tiny puppy named Chief is the youngest victim of the dog poisonings that have a Parksville neighbourhood living in fear.
“Somebody in our community is poisoning our dogs,” said Parksville resident Rochelle Levins.
“And it has been well over a month and they obviously keep coming back.”
“It’s crazy,” said Parksville resident Stacey Mitchell.
A group of neighbours on Parkville’s Roscow Street have all had dogs that were violently ill, right in their own backyards. Stacey Mitchell’s dog Maggie found a tampered hot dog on June 12, a wiener with what appeared to be a pill stuffed in it.
“She had to get her stomach pumped right away,” said Mitchell.
“I called them and they said ‘bring her in right away,'” she said.
Then on June 20, Levins found her dog, Nova, with a similar-looking hot dog.
“A little tiny piece of hot dog hollowed out with a pill inside that had been partially chewed by Nova,” said Levins.
“She’s been pretty sick off and on for the last month or so, off and on, and I didn’t really know what was happening. But I think she’s been being poisoned off and on for about a month now.”
RCMP now suspect the poisonings are linked. When officers responded to Tuesday’s incident, they learned of several more cases of sick dogs around Roscow.
“So we’re very concerned that someone is possibly putting some sort of pill or substance into meat to entice dogs to eat it and get them sick,” said Oceanside RCMP Cpl. Jesse Foreman.
According to neighbours, there have been complaints about their dogs barking, but they said they can’t imagine that it sparked this retaliation.
“For somebody to be that bothered to want to harm them, it’s a very violating, unsafe feeling,” said neighbour Christine Rayner.
“Now that I know it’s continuing to go on, I don’t know if I can stay at my house again,” said Mitchell.
“I just can’t believe somebody is that sick,” said Levins.
Oceanside RCMP are urging anyone with information to come forward.
Police said they were called on June 23 to a possible dog poisoning incident.
After arriving on Roscow Street in Parksville, police said they learned that a dog had become ill and that the owner of the dog discovered a hot dog in the yard that had some form of pill stuffed inside.
Police said they are also aware of the separate incident on Wisteria Street nearby approximately two weeks prior, where the dog was taken to the veterinarian after eating meat left in the dog’s yard.
“Due to the proximity of these incidents and similar facts, officers canvased the area in search of other dog owners. They found that at least two other dogs had been ill in recent weeks. The dogs have all thankfully recovered,” police said in a release.
“Officers have seized the hot dog wiener for a possible analysis and notified the BC SPCA about the incident.”
You can contact Oceanside RCMP at (250) 248-6111
Skye Ryan
