Stay alert on local dog walks
While the debate continues over off leash areas for dogs in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, sadly someone has decided to go rogue and plant poisoned meatballs in a popular area of San Francisco. Again. These meatballs look very familiar and killed a little doxie we knew:
"Last July, a 7-year-old dachshund died and another dog was seriously sickened after eating meatballs the police believe were filled with strychnine. Police never located the person responsible for the deadly meatballs."
Even on leash, it's easy for people and dogs to get distracted when you have city streets and stairways like this one to hike or walk up.
[One of my favorite routes toward Twin Peaks is via these otherworldly steps]
Please be alert while out walking
These tainted meatballs were hidden in places easy for dogs to sniff out but hard to people to notice -- in bushes, behind stairwells, under hedges. All the places my dog Cleo loves to stick her nose in.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
A San Francisco animal control officer Saturday found 35 meatballs suspected to be poisoned and deadly to dogs and cats scattered through a Twin Peaks neighborhood where a similar incident occurred last year.
After a resident called Animal Care and Control Friday to report finding fragments of suspicious meatballs, the department sent an officer to scour the area near Crestline Drive and Parkridge Drive Saturday.
Acting Lt. Denise BonGiovannifound 34 balls of raw meat studded with pieces of something solid, and a resident gave her another she said she had snatched from her dog before the pet could eat it.
San Francisco police are asking the public for any information that could help the investigation. They should call the department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444.