San Francisco News

San Francisco police warn dog owners of poisoned meatballs

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Signs have been posted warning dog owners after poisoned meatballs were found in San Francisco's Twin Peaks neighborhood.

Someone may be lacing meatballs with rat poison and it's not the first time.

Last July, several dogs were sickened by eating cooked meatballs full of rat poison. One dog died.

It doesn't take long for Lt. Denise Bongiovanni to find a suspicious meatball in the bushes along Crestline Drive, where dozens of poisoned meatballs are turning up.

"The majority of the meatballs we've been locating are pretty well concealed under the shrubbery very close to the curbside, so the dogs would most likely notice them first and have access to them first before the owners would ever see it," Lt. Bongiovanni said.

Dorothy Schechter noticed immediately when her dog A.J found a suspicious meatball during their walk.

"I pulled them out right away and realized, oh my god, it's the meatballs again," Schechter said.

Schechter's dog Oskar died after eating a meatball laced with Strychnine last July.

Several other dogs in the neighborhood got sick.

No one was ever caught for the crimes.

"I said, 'this cannot be happening again.' I said, 'please god, let's not have another trauma up here,'" Schechter said.

Twin Peaks dog owners are being extra careful while walking their dogs.

"I'm horrified. Who would do that? It's just the cruelest, rudest thing in the world," dog owner Linda Bradford said.

"I'm furious because you would take this out on dogs, who would take this out on dogs?" dog owner Rob Price said.

There are reports that three dogs have recently been sickened the same way near Crestline Drive, where the previous poisonings happened. Even neighbors without dogs are concerned.

"It's really terrible because a lot of people have dogs and they take them out and they walk them and it's disgusting," San Francisco resident Dennis White said.

Investigators are still in the process of testing the suspicious meatballs and haven't confirmed what exactly is inside of them.

Police are warning residents with dogs to be extremely careful while walking about the neighborhood.


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