Dog poisoning cases puzzle police investigators

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo Courtesy of Lynne Gillis Lynne Gillis’ dog Niko was poisoned recently. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

The black Labrador retriever puppy had been kept on a 2-foot chain, and had fur missing, welts around his head, and bloody ears and neck.

Willcock adopted the abused puppy and brought him back to her Sunderland home, where she keeps emus, pot-bellied pigs, turkeys, goats, guinea pigs and other animals she has rescued.

Aristotle adapted well, appointing himself guardian of Willcock’s menagerie. He kept wild animals away and even broke up squabbles among Willcock’s other pets. But his early days still left a mark on him.

‘‘To the day that he died, if you moved too quickly around him he would cringe right down to the floor. In spite of all the abuse, he was really a good dog. He really took care of those animals, like he knew it was his job,” Willcock said.

And on Jan. 31, Aristotle met an end as tragic as his beginning, succumbing to kidney failure days after being poisoned with antifreeze.

Willcock is convinced that the poisoning was intentional.

‘‘There’s no way that he could have access to that on his own,” Willcock said.

She even suspects she knows who killed Aristotle, a man she confronted about his pit bull.

‘‘Like I said, I have no proof but it’s a little coincidental. I’ve been there for two years with my critters and nobody harmed them, then I have a run in with this individual and now my dog is dead,” Willcock said.

Linda Kelley (R), a member of the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners who is involved with animal rescue and is a friend of Willcock’s, agrees that the poisoning was intentional.

‘‘This is not an accident and I will tell you, with Cathy’s animals ... There is no way in the world the dog could have gotten anything on the premises. It had to be introduced by an outside element,” Kelley said.

Willcock is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the poisoner.

Aristotle is not the only dog to have died from antifreeze poisoning recently. Niko, a pit bull belonging to Lynne Gillis, succumbed to kidney failure on Feb. 17 after ingesting antifreeze. Like Willcock, Gillis is convinced that someone killed her dog.

‘‘There is no antifreeze on my property,” Gillis said.

Furthermore, a neighbor spotted a stranger on her property the day before Niko died. He drove up to her home, briefly entered her backyard, then hurried back to his vehicle and sped away, Gillis said. Details about the incident cannot be released because they might compromise the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation of the attack.

But Gillis does not believe that the two poisonings are related. Gillis has been a leader of the animal rights community in Calvert and believes that Niko was targeted because of her visibility. Gillis has abruptly resigned her positions with Dogs Deserve Better and other animal rights groups in response to Niko’s death.

‘‘I can no longer risk coming across a person who is not going to understand what it is that I’m trying to do, which is not to take someone’s dog away. My entire intention was to better the life of the dog and make the dog a part of the family,” Gillis said.

Gillis acknowledges that her retreat is, in a way, a victory for the poisoner, but said that she does not regret anything that she has done.

‘‘I thought the other day, knowing the outcome, if this is related to my work for chained dogs, would I have done it all again? And the answer is yes. ... [But] ... am I willing to lose another dog over this? No, at least not at the given time,” Gillis said.

Gillis has rallied the animals rights community, which has raised almost $12,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Niko’s killer.

Det. Chris Parsons with the sheriff’s office is investigating Niko’s death.

This will be a tough case to investigate, Parsons said, but he says he is hopeful that he will find the poisoner.

‘‘I’m going to do everything that I can do to see that whoever did this is found and charged and hopefully convicted. I am dedicated to doing everything I can do in this case,” Parsons said.

Someone who poisoned a dog could be charged with abuse or neglect of an animal and poisoning of a dog, both misdemeanors, as well as aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, according to State’s Attorney Laura Martin.

‘‘We’ve had cases like this before, and we usually charge it as an aggravated [cruelty to animal] because of the amount of pain ingesting the antifreeze does to the animal,” Martin (R) said.

The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail and a $5,000 dollar fine. Abuse or neglect of an animal carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in prison and $1,000, while dog poisoning carries a $100 fine. If convicted of the felony charge, a person could not also be punished for the misdemeanor abuse charge, Martin said.

And at least one other dog may have been poisoned.

Angel Shutt of Sunderland did not return calls to her home, but her daughter, Alyssa, 14, spoke about the death of her dog, Vanessa Theodora.

‘‘We don’t know exactly when the poisoning happened, but when we brought my dog to the vet it was already too late. She died later that day,” Alyssa said.

Alyssa said her family believes the dog was poisoned, possibly a casualty of a family dispute. As for how she died, ‘‘we don’t know yet. We think it might be antifreeze,” Alyssa said.

E-mail Erica Mitrano at emitrano@somdnews.com.