Hi
all,
Gina
mentioned this the other day. So I thought I would forward the article so you
can see what is going on. You can never be too safe with your dogs.
Rick
Rick Reid, Yanna Jorni and The
Golden Menagerie - Jake, Chelsea, Michelob and Austin
-----Original Message-----
From: AJ & Kathy
[mailto:miller80@enter.net]
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003
10:47 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: [GoldstockFund] OT
article from Portland Or. Dog Poisonings
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Dog poisonings follow leash dispute
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Eight die after
eating tainted sausage in Portland, Ore. park
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Megan Premo walks Phoenix, an
Australian Sheepdog mix, past a sign warning dog owners of recent poisonings
in Laurelhurst Park in Portland, Ore. on
Thursday.
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PORTLAND, Ore., July 18 — In this congenitally dog-friendly city, where dogs
once roamed free in city parks, someone is taking a debate over leash laws to
a sinister level: Eight dogs have died, reportedly from eating poisoned
sausage left in a park, and eight others have taken sick.
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‘It’s a shame I
can’t let him off the leash without him getting in some poisoned
sausage.’
—
MEGAN PREMO
Dog
owner
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AUTOPSIES INDICATED that
someone laced the meat with the herbicide paraquat, veterinarians say. The
poisonings began weeks after a round of local media reports dissecting the
tensions surrounding the leash/no-leash issue in city parks.
Canine owners are on edge, certain that some
lifelong dog-hater got sniffed one too many times by an unleashed pet, and
decided to take revenge. They are packing fundraisers around the city to
contribute toward a reward for information leading to an arrest. So far, the
take is $13,000 and counting.
The dogs who have died were all roaming leafy Laurelhurst
Park, recently identified in a study by graduate students at Portland State University
as the park generating the highest number of complaints about off-leash dogs.
The popular park has been almost deserted since
word first spread about the poisonings, and the few dog owners who do show up
keep their tethers tight.
Megan Premo was walking there Thursday with Phoenix,
an Australian Shepherd mix, restraining the dog every time he strained toward
a clutch of nearby squirrels.
“It’s a shame I can’t let him
off the leash without him getting in some poisoned sausage” said Premo,
24, the leash wound securely around her wrist.
‘THREATS AND INSULTS’
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Should dogs be allowed off leash
in city parks?
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Yes, all city parks should be leash free.
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No, dogs should be on a leash.
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Cities should designate some leash-free parks.
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Vote to see results
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Those in favor of
leash-free parks have reported threats and insults yelled at them from the
leash-your-dog crowd while in parks.
Last month, the city council voted to spend
$60,000 to enforce leash laws. The laws were ignored for years, angering
those who leash their dogs and non-dog people, and spurring pro-leash
advocates to launch a web-site, leashyourdog.com,
for reporting free-roaming dogs.
The site includes candid spy photos of
free-roaming dogs and their owners, arguments for leash laws and links to updates
about the Laurelhurst poisonings.
The first sick dogs arrived at Dove Lewis
Emergency Animal Hospital July 3 suffering from vomiting, diarrhea and mouth
ulcers. Owners of the afflicted dogs said their pets had scarfed down
something resembling a piece of pepperoni before they fell ill.
Police spokesman Henry Groepper said police had no
suspects and no motive. But on Thursday, a waitress at the Lucky Lab, a
canine-friendly bar holding a fund-raiser for the reward pot, fielded an
anonymous call from a man saying the dog killings would spread to a second
park.
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Advertisement
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“He wanted me to
tell the media he was moving this campaign to Mount Tabor,”
waitress Anette Hunt said.
Premo, who was walking Phoenix for friends, was
strolling past a bucolic duck pond when her cell phone rang.
“He hasn’t eaten anything,” she
said to the caller. “We’re leaving right now.
“I just got yelled at by the owner,”
she said. “Now I’m in the dog house.”
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