Bizarre animal killings may be victims of dog park debate

A deadly poison, designed specifically to lure animals, has been spread throughout a west-end Toronto park, where dogs often roam off-leash, police confirmed Tuesday.

Investigators confirmed two dogs have died and four others are recovering after somebody deliberately spread different sources of poison throughout High Park.

A mixture of what appeared to be whole wheat bread and flax seed was discovered by police Tuesday morning about five minutes from Dog Hill, a section of the park where dogs often roam free.

A toxic liquid was poured over the bread mix, Det. Suzanne Pinto told reporters at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

"It was designed for the exact purpose to lure animals," she said.

It is believed the mix was ingested by one of the sick dogs.

"Everything around the area (where the bread mix was found), like plants, died," said Pinto. "It was in an area of political debate."

Police are investigating whether the poison was put in the park by someone who does not support a plan to designate a section of the park as an off-leash area for dogs.

An "unusually high" number of dead raccoons have been found over the past several weeks but police were never called and the carcasses were tossed in the garbage.

Now that poison has been linked to the park, police believe about 12 raccoons ate a toxic substance and died.

Pinto said the dead animals had been found in unusual positions. One raccoon's body was posed holding a bouquet of flowers and another was found holding a squirrel.

Antifreeze has a sweet taste that dogs and cats alike are attracted to. A medium sized dog can be killed after ingesting about 2 ounces (3-4 tablespoons ), for cats, as little as 1/4 of an ounce (1-2 teaspoons) can be fatal. More often than not, if they find antifreeze, they will drink it.

This comes after a few years ago, someone left bits of meat laced with pesticide around Withrow Park in the east end, another popular park with dog owners. And I think in between those two there was an incident in another park where someone scattered broken glass and other sharp objects in a dogs' off-leash area in another park, though I don't really recall the details of that one.

This incident hit closer to home for me than the others, though, because I've been to Dog Hill with Kiska. She's probably drunk out those same water bowls. Not recently, fortunately, but still...


No way of knowing, I suppose, whether there's one person behind all of this or whether they're all unconnected outbreaks of dog-hatred. The Star article I linked to above suggests that the Dog Hill poisoning was linked to debates over the boundaries of the leash-free area.